Spat with DC: Gurdaspur court rejects bail plea of MLA Simarjit Bains

Ravi Dhaliwal
Tribune News Service
Gurdaspur, September 16

Gurdaspur District and Sessions Judge Ramesh Kumari on Monday dismissed the anticipatory bail application of Atam Nagar (Ludhiana) MLA and Lok Insaaf Party chief Simarjit Singh Bains.

Earlier, on two occasions the judge had reserved the order and had fixed hearing for today.

The MLA will now have to approach the Punjab and Haryana High Court to get relief.

Bains was represented by four lawyers while District Attorney A.P.S. Sandhu represented the state of Punjab.

Interestingly, while the DA opposed the bail plea, the Batala police were "not too keen" on arresting the legislator.

The Batala cops had filed an FIR against the legislator on September 7 under Sections 186, 353, 451, 147, 177, 505 and 506 of the IPC.

The MLA was involved in a verbal spat with Gurdaspur Deputy Commissioner Vipul Ujwal on September 5 forcing the Punjab IAS Officers’ Association to come out in support of the latter.

Two days after he ‘abused’ the DC, the association decided to act following which Batala SDM Balbir Raj Singh was asked to file a police complaint.

Sources claim the MLA could be arrested if the Batala police choose to do so.

“The case has been politicised with even Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh saying that he had instructed the police to book Bains after he saw a video clip in which the MLA could be seen using abusive language against the bureaucrat. We do not know if the Batala SSP had been asked to go slow or not,” said an officer.

SSP Opinderjit Singh Ghuman could not be contacted for a comment.