A day before the last date for filing nominations for the Municipal Council elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party was forced to change its nominee, identified as Soma, from Ward No. 22 in Fazilka after a case under the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act was registered against her on Friday evening.
Notably, the list of candidates released on May 14, under the signature of the party’s state general secretary Rakesh Rathore, carried Soma’s name at serial number 17. However, she had not filed her nomination papers till then.
According to information, the BJP has now replaced her with another candidate after the controversy erupted.
Divulging details, investigating officer Sub-Inspector Arshdeep Singh said the police had received information that Soma was allegedly running a prostitution racket from her residence in the Basti Sunwan area of the city for monetary gains and was reportedly involved in arranging meetings between men and women.
He said that acting on the tip-off, the police conducted a raid at her house and detained seven persons, including four women and three men.
Those arrested were identified as Soma, Anu of Basti Awa, Prakash Kaur of Hanumangarh, Raj Kumar of Haji Betu village, Gaurav Kumar of Jalalabad, Balkar Singh of Basti Sheikhanwali and Jyoti of Basti Sunwan.
Later, the police registered an FIR against all the accused under Sections 3, 4 and 5 of the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956, at the City police station,
Reacting to the development, BJP district secretary Sumit Pugal Heera alleged that certain people linked to the ruling party were rattled by the BJP’s growing popularity in the town and were trying to malign the party by getting false cases registered against people associated with it.
He said the party had now fielded Pappu as its candidate from Ward No. 22 and demanded a fair investigation into the matter.
Senior BJP leader Anumeet Singh Heera Sodhi said Soma’s house was fully equipped with CCTV cameras and claimed that scrutiny of the footage would reveal the truth. He alleged that the ruling party was attempting to defame the BJP ahead of the municipal elections.
