Arrested for forgery, SAD leader paraded in handcuffs in Abohar

ABOHAR: Fazilka police handcuffed and paraded the president of the local pesticides dealers’ association and a leader of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) Suresh Satija in

Abohar

town on Tuesday. Satija, who is the Abohar circle in-charge of SAD, was arrested on June 17 for allegedly forging a bill.


Criticizing the police move, Abohar MLA Arun Narang of BJP and several Akali leaders alleged that the police had arrested Satija on the directions of Punjab Congress president, Sunil Jakhar, who wanted to settle scores with him because of his defeat in the 2017 assembly elections from Abohar.

Bahavwala police had arrested Satija on June 17 and reportedly recovered 63 bags of super

urea

. He was booked for forgery.

“Satija, who was arrested by the Fazilka police on June 17, was treated like a hardcore criminal. He was not only handcuffed but also paraded in the town just to humiliate him,” alleged Narang.

Amandeep Singh Dhaliwal, president of Abohar Bar Association and counsel of Satija, said they would file a contempt petition for the violation of the court of September 24, 2008 in which the Punjab and Haryana high court had directed the DGPs of Punjab and Haryana to issue appropriate directions to all concerned with the production of undertrials to strictly abide by the directions issued by the Supreme Court and to forbid handcuffing the prisoners.

Criticizing the police for acting under pressure of Jakhar, Abhishek Satija, son of Satija, claimed that the entire case was fabricated as the entire record of their firm was checked by a team of agriculture department recently, which had given a clean chit to them. “My father was picked up by the police due to political vendetta and subjected to third degree torture in custody,” he alleged.

When contacted, Bahavwala station house officer (SHO) Balwinder Singh said taking an accused to the crime scene was a part of the police investigation. Meanwhile, Fazilka senior superintendent of police (SSP) Ketan Baliram Patil said he was not aware of any such incident, though a video of Satija being paraded in handcuffs in the market went viral on the social media.