Co-op society poll nomination: Police lathi-charge mob as clash erupts
Police have registered cases against at least 40 people, including village sarpanch Hardev Kaur. Purported videos of the clash between villagers and police surfaced online. HT could not independently verify the veracity of the videos.
The police resorted to lathi charge to control the crows after clash erupted on Thursday during the nominations for agriculture cooperative society elections in Raikot’s Tajpur village, officials said.
Purported videos of the clash between villagers and police surfaced online. HT could not independently verify the veracity of the videos. Police have registered cases against at least 40 people, including village sarpanch Hardev Kaur.
Others nominated in the case include Gurjinder Singh, Sukhwinder Singh, Hardeep Singh, Gurjant Singh and Baljit Singh.
Villagers accused the returning officer (RO) of favouring candidates from the ruling Aam Aadmi Party. According to Hardev Kaur’s son, Baljit Singh, the RO rejected 16 nominations from opposition candidates and approved those from the ruling party. He alleged that when villagers protested against the ‘bias’, police used force to break up the demonstration.
Congress leader and constituency in-charge Kamil Amar Singh accused the officer of intentionally disqualifying opposition candidates.
The FIR was registered after a statement by Surinder Singh, inspector of the Co-operative Society Circle in Barmi village. He said some nominations were rejected due to errors and the reasons were communicated to the candidates.
He said the rejected candidates and their supporters barged into the society’s office and locked the officials inside. Singh claimed the protesters provoked villagers to join and attacked police when they intervened to free the locked officials
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