Minister’s men assault 2 over bogus vote case

Supporters of of sports and youth affairs Sukhbir Kataria on Monday allegedly assaulted two men owing allegiance to an NGO that had filed a court petition in 2009, accusing the minister of forging identity cards to obtain bogus votes in the last state assembly elections.

Supporters of Haryana minister of sports and youth affairs Sukhbir Kataria on Monday allegedly assaulted two men owing allegiance to an NGO that had filed a court petition in 2009 accusing the minister of forging identity cards to obtain bogus votes in the last state assembly polls.

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Sukhbir represents Gurgaon in the state assembly.

The accused, including Kataria’s relatives, allegedly dragged out the victims from the house of one Dharamjeet Kataria who lives in the minister’s neighbourhood. They got enraged after a Gurgaon court official went to Sukhbir’s house to serve summons issued in the case recently.

The NGO, Matdata Jaagrookta Manch, in its petition filed in 2009, had alleged that Sukhbir got 17 of his relatives to acquire forged documents to obtain multiple voter cards from different booths in his constituency.

NGO members also claimed that the police took the victims to the police station instead of a hospital. One of the victims, Rakesh Kumar, had to be shifted to the ICU of a private hospital as he is a heart patient while the other Shiv Bhagwan is the driver of OP Kataria, the general secretary of the NGO. Dharamjeet’s wife Rekha alleged that the minister’s supporters manhandled her too. A counter complaint was also filed by Sukhbir’s supporters later.

OP Kataria claimed that “his aides had gone there to help the court official locate the minister’s house.” He alleged that acting under the influence of Sukhbir, the police bundled up the two victims and took them to the police station instead of going after the minister’s men.

While police commissioner Alok Mittal denied the allegations, OP Kataria moved a complaint in court. The court has asked the area magistrate and police to look into the incident.

Both OP Kataria and Dharamjeet owe allegiance to main opposition party, Indian National Lok Dal. The minister could not be reached for comments despite repeated efforts.