33 booked for holding PSPCL team ‘captive’ at Tarn Taran village

On the complaint of the PSPCL SDO, the police booked 33 persons for allegedly keeping the power corporation team captive at Chabhal village in Tarn Taran

As many as 33 persons, including some workers of the Bharti Kisan Union (BKU), were booked for allegedly holding Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) sub-divisional officer (SDO) and his staff captive at their office in Chabhal village, the police said on Tuesday.

As many as 33 persons, including some workers of the BKU, were booked for allegedly holding Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) sub-divisional officer (SDO) and his staff captive at their office in Chabhal village inTarn Taran, the police said on Tuesday. (HT Photo/ Representational image)

The accused had been protesting and demanding the quashing of the cases of electricity theft which were detected by the SDO and his team recently, police said.

The case was registered on the complaint of SDO Narinder Singh. He said, “I was deployed with SDO Sara-E-Amanat-Khan to check the electricity theft in the area. I had detected some cases of electricity theft and I was supposed to send their challans to the SDO Sara-E-Amanat-Khan. On Monday, BKU leader Mukhtiar Singh and his supporters came to my office at Chabhal village and started putting pressure to drop the cases of electricity theft. After some time, they started protesting outside my office. They raised slogans against me and didn’t allow me and my staff to come out of the office. We were held captive in the office till 8 pm. They had locked the doors of the office from outside. The protestors also used derogatory remarks against me and my staff.”

Assistant sub-inspector (ASI) Sukhwinder Singh of Chabhal police station said on the complaint of the SDO, they have registered a case under Sections 506 (criminal intimidation), 353 (assault), 186 (obstructing public servant), 342 (wrongful confinement), 341 (wrongful restraint) and 149 (every member of unlawful assembly) of the Indian Penal Code against 33 persons.

Those accused who have been identified are Mukhtiar Singh, Hardeep Singh, Bhupinder Singh, Nirvail Singh, Harmeet Singh, Sahib Singh, Gurpinder Singh, Kulwinder Singh, Lovepreet Singh, Harchand Singh, Baba Hira Singh, Jasbir Singh and Balkar Singh of Gandiwind village.

The ASI said their teams were working to identify the remaining accused. “Our raids are also on to nab the accused,” he added.