Charges fly thick and fast over ladies suit, liquor as allurements ahead of poll

Deepkamal Kaur

Jalandhar, May 31

A day before polling for the Lok Sabha, almost every woman who attended a religious programme at Panchwati Mandir in Basti Guzan this afternoon came out carrying a brand new ladies suit in hand.

I had gone to the temple as it was a friend’s birthday and she had organised a religious event. At the conclusion of the programme, she distributed suits to everyone. Sunita Rinku

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Since Sunita Rinku, wife of BJP candidate from Jalandhar, Sushil Rinku, was also in attendance, there have been allegations that the suits were distributed by her to the women as an allurement for casting a vote tomorrow in their favour. A Congress worker from the area, Rajni Angural, said that she saw it all and even made a video of the women coming out.

In the video, the women who received the suits as gifts just laugh it off when she asks them if the candidate’s wife had gifted these to them in lieu of casting votes in favour of her husband. The team members of Congress candidate Charanjit Channi said that they were set to lodge a complaint in the matter with the Election Commission of India.

Sunita Rinku, however, denied the allegations of allurement and said, “I had gone to the temple as it was a friend’s birthday and she had organised a religious event. At the conclusion of the programme, she distributed suits to everyone. The event was in no way related to elections.”

Likewise, two FIRs have been lodged, including one in Nakodar and another in Adampur wherein the police and excise teams have recovered cases of liquor which were being taken to be distributed free ahead of elections. In Sangha Jagir village of Nakodar, a person Daljinder Singh of Lidhran village, has been booked after the excise department team videographed that he had been loading 15 cases of liquor in a Scorpio car. He could not produce any permit when asked by Excise Inspector Sahil Ranga in the matter. Another FIR has been lodged at Bhogpur where two cases of liquor meant for distribution in elections has been recovered, said SHO Jatinder Singh.