E-Paper
Punjab assembly elections: 25% of candidates in fray from Ludhiana seats face criminal cases
Shiromani Akali Dal has nine candidates with pending criminal cases, Aam Aadmi Party comes a close second with eight such candidates and Lok Insaaf Party stands third with six nominees facing criminal cases, on the 14 assembly seats in Ludhiana where elections are to be held
Forty-four of the 175 candidates in fray for 14 assembly seats in Ludhiana face criminal charges, with Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) topping the list of parties with most number of such nominees.
While SAD has nine candidates with pending criminal cases, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) comes a close second with eight such candidates and Lok Insaaf Party (LIP) stands third with six nominees facing criminal cases.
Sahnewal worst off
With 19 candidates with criminal cases, Sahnewal is the worst off. It is followed by Samrala with eight candidates with criminal cases in fray and Ludhiana (South) with five such candidates.
Nature of crimes
While SAD candidate from Ludhiana North, RD Sharma is facing a murder case, LIP chief Simarjit Singh Bains, who is fighting election from Atam Nagar, is booked in 15 cases including rape, violating Covid protocols, robbery, criminal intimidation, restoring power connections, defamation, disobeying public servant’s order and assaulting public servant.
Bains was booked in six cases in 2017, the count rose to eight in 2019 when Bains filed nominations for the Lok Sabha polls. Now, the cases against him stand at 15.
Interestingly, eight independent candidates with criminal records are also fighting the elections.
The list includes the names of dismissed deputy superintendent of police Balwinder Singh Sekhon, who is fighting against Congress minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu. Sekhon was booked in an FIR in May 2020 at Patti police station of Tarn Taran under the offences of promoting enmity between different groups, defamation, outraging religious feelings etc for allegedly putting up a Facebook post against Patti MLA Harminder Singh Gill of Congress, Punjab DGP, local SSP etc.
In Ludhiana central constituency, Raminder Pal Singh is facing charges under Section 12 of the Domestic Violence Act, while Jaswant Singh of SAD (Amritsar) and AAP candidate Daljit Singh Bholla Grewal are facing attempt to murder charges.
Ranjit Singh Sivia, the LIP candidate from Ludhiana North, is facing three FIRs under the Mining Act.
SAD candidates Manpreet Singh Ayali, Hira Singh Gabria, Ranjit Singh Dhillon, Sharanjeet Singh Dhillon, Paramjit Singh and SR Kaler are facing cases of violating disaster management act and blocking national highway.
BJP’s Praveen Bansal faces a case of obstructing a medical officer from discharging duty.
Rajinderpal Kaur, AAP candidate from the Ludhiana South, faces a case of cheating and criminal breach of trust.
Gurpreet Goggi, another AAP candidate from Ludhiana-West, is facing trial for his rail roko protest.
LIP candidate from Payal, Jagdeep Singh is facing charges of cheating, AAP candidate Manwinder Singh Giaspura is facing a case of assaulting a public servant.
SAD (Sanyukt) candidate from Sahnewal was booked for cheating, while National Justice Party leader Gurdeep Singh Kahlon is facing a case under the arms act and cheating.
Independent leader Bhola Singh was convicted under Section 21 of the Mining Act and let off after he submitted a ₹10k fine in the court.
Similarly, Samajwadi Party candidate Sohan Lal, who is fighting from Samrala, is also facing a cheating and fraud case.
Revenue officer-turned-BJP candidate from Jagraon, Kanwal Narinder Singh is also facing a cheating case.
Beside Bains, Congress candidate Kamaljit Singh Karwal is facing an attempt to murder case and assaulting a public servant. Further, SAD candidate Harish Rai Dhanda is also facing a case of cheating.
