Shahkot bypoll: SAD asks EC to provide protection to cops, officials

The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) today appealed to the Election Commission to provide protection to police and civil officials in the Shahkot assembly constituency for a free and fair bypoll.

In a memorandum to the EC, SAD spokesman Daljit Singh Cheema said the manner in which the station house officer of Mehatpur in Shahkot, who booked Congress candidate Hardev Singh Laddi, was allegedly harassed by the state government, it had "demoralised" the entire official machinery in Shahkot.

Cheema said, "The treatment meted out to Mehetpur SHO Parminder Bajwa by the Congress government has demoralised the police as well as civil machinery in Shahkot and unless remedial action was taken by the EC, free and fair election was not possible in the constituency."