Punjab ministers seek FIR against Ludhiana MLA Bains for remarks against police

Four Punjab cabinet ministers on Monday sought the registration of a case against Lok Insaf Party MLA Simarjeet Singh Bains for allegedly terming the attack on cops in Patiala a response to the high-handedness of police.

A government release here said the Ludhiana MLA in an interview to a media channel said the Sunday attack was a "public backlash against the police high-handedness" over the past a few days.

Assistant Sub-Inspector Harjeet Singh's hand was chopped off with a sword while three other Punjab policemen and a mandi official sustained injuries when a group of Nihangs attacked them after being asked to show curfew passes at a vegetable market in Patiala district.

Terming the MLA's remarks "provocative and vile", state ministers Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, Balbir Singh Sidhu, Aruna Choudhary and Vijay Inder Singla asked the LIP leader to give up the police security if he did not trust the force.

Bains should be immediately booked under the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897, the National Disaster Management Act, 2005 as well as relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code, the ministers demanded in a release here.

They also demanded an unequivocal apology from Bains for politicising the issue for cheap publicity at a time when the entire police force was putting their own lives at stake and working round the clock for providing relief to the needy.

The Punjab Police is doing a commendable job in these critical times and what happened on Sunday is reprehensible. By casting aspersions on our police force, Bains has rubbed salt into the wounds of the bravehearts, Health Minister Sidhu said.

Randhawa said this was time to fight the enemy unitedly and support the frontline warriors.

This is gross disrespect to the great sacrifices being made by our policemen in the line of duty and should be condemned by all, said Education Minister Vijay Inder Singla.

Terming it yet another attempt by Bains to grab the limelight, minister Aruna Choudhary said, "By giving such statements, he is encouraging anti-social elements to attack police.

Meanwhile, police on Monday arrested three people for provocative social media messages in the wake of the attack.

Bhupinder Singh, a resident of Hoshiarpur; Davinder Singh, a resident of Batala; and Kuljeet Singh Bhullar, a resident of Muktsar, were arrested for allegedly trying to incite communal unrest with their hate messages on social media, DGP Dinkar Gupta in a statement.

These men were indulging in hate propaganda through social media by lauding the Nihang action, said Gupta.