Phagwara mayoral poll gets intense as Cong councillors avail anticipatory bail
The mayoral election scheduled for tomorrow in Phagwara is getting more intense with each day as all Congress councillors and their family members and supporters have availed anticipatory bail from the Kapurthala sessions court. The Congress councillors had applied for bail on January 28. The court of Additional Sessions Judge Gurmeet Tiwana on Friday allowed them anticipatory bail for a period of one week.
The copy of the order reads: “As the applicants are apprehending their arrest in false case because of the political slug fest, they will not be arrested immediately even if FIR is registered against any one of them. A seven day notice will be given to them.”
The bail order comes just a day after the Punjab and Haryana High Court’s rap on the authorities concerned for their failure to conduct the mayoral election on January 25 and appointment of a retired judge Justice Harbans Lal as an independent observer.
The Congress councillors led by MLA Balwinder Singh Dhaliwal have been claiming that the police were pressurising them to either join the AAP or stay away from elections. Since husbands of three Municipal Corporation (MC) councillors were booked last week just a day ahead of the previously convened mayoral election on January 25, they were apprehensive that they would be forced to keep away by use of force again this time. Hence, they moved an application through Congress legal cell in-charge and advocate Karanjot Singh Jhikka. Additional Public Prosecutor APS Dhillon appeared for the state.
Among those, who have availed bail are Sanjeev Kumar Bugga, likely mayoral candidate of the Congress, Neeraj, his wife and councillor Jatinder Vermani, likely candidate for the post of Senior Deputy Mayor, and women councillors Paramjit Kaur Walia, Pinky Bhatia and Deep Mala, whose husbands were booked by the Phagwara police recently.
Other councillors who availed bail are Veena Rani, Taranjit Singh Walia, Balwant Rai, Sourav Joshi, Bikram Singh, Sushil Kumar Maini, Sita Devi, Reena Rani Sharma, Gurpreet Kaur, Parvinder Kaur, Darshan Ram Kataria, Sonia Joshi, Anita Rani, Monika Chadha and Anita Kumari. Some family members of councillors and their supporters, including Satinder Rai, Kundan Lal, Narinder Singh, Vivek Chadha, Sanjeev Kumar Sharma, Parmod Kumar Joshi and Naresh Kumar, who too claimed that were at the risk of being wrongfully detained also availed anticipatory bail.
The copy of the petition read: “The applicants have specific and well-founded reason to believe that false and fabricated FIRs may have been lodged against them. The AAP and the administration have already been using underhand tactics to threaten and intimidate Congress councillors to join the party, while warning them of serious consequences if they refused. The AAP and the administration in retaliation for the legal action taken by applicants have now escalated tactics.”
Meanwhile, AAP MP Raj Kumar Chabbewal denied any force to intimidate Congress councillors. "We know that we will win mayoral election. The Congress is resorting to such measures out of its fear of losing the poll," he said.
