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SAD condemns CM, DGP for booking Sikh youth on ‘frivolous charges’
The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Wednesday condemned Punjab CM Captain Amarinder Singh and state DGP Dinkar Gupta for booking Sikh youth for heinous crimes on “frivolous
The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Wednesday condemned Punjab CM Captain Amarinder Singh and state DGP Dinkar Gupta for booking Sikh youth for heinous crimes on “frivolous charges” and asked them not to indulge in such “human rights violations”.
In a statement, former minister Bikram Singh Majithia said, “There are reports of the Congress government targeting Sikh youth, many of whom are minors, simply for seeing some pages on the social media. Frivolous charges are being slapped on them and they were being dubbed as anti-nationals.”
Majithia said that in a recent case at his constituency, a 16-year-old boy, Jaspreet Singh, was arrested and kept in Patiala jail for 14 days on charges of being linked with subversive activities.
“Sikh youth, who are not even old enough to drive a car, are being booked for terrorist acts. Such barbaric behaviour by the State will scar the psyche of impressionable minds and is dangerous for maintenance of peace and communal harmony in Punjab,” he added.
He said that the Congress government should be circumvent before taking action against youth and “should not charge youth with having committed subversive activities for simple misdemeanours.”
The SAD leader said, “The real problem is the mindset of people at the top, particularly state police chief Dinkar Gupta who had been handpicked by the CM. Gupta had revealed his mindset when he had given a statement while referring to the abode of the first Guru at Kartarpur Sahib by saying ‘Kartarpur offers a potential that you send somebody in the morning as an ordinary chap and by evening he comes back as trained terrorist’.”
He said it was due to this mindset that Sikh youth are being targeted in the garb of Referendum 2020. Majithia said Punjabis are a patriotic community and there is no support whatsoever for the Referendum 2020. He said that Punjabis had rejected the divisive agenda earlier as well.
He added that the party will fight all cases in which Sikh youth are framed in subversive activities on merit.
