Tension gripped Garhshankar on the last day of filing nominations for the Municipal Council elections when some unidentified miscreants allegedly snatched nomination documents from a Congress candidate and fled the spot. AAP MLA and Punjab Assembly Deputy Speaker Jai Krishan Singh Rouri was also present at the SDM office during the incident.
Speaking about the incident, Congress candidate Pawan Kumar Pammi said that as soon as he arrived at the office to file his nomination papers, two to three persons suddenly snatched his file and ran away.
Following the incident, local Congress leader Amarpreet Singh Lally reached the spot along with supporters and raised slogans against the government.
He alleged that the police administration and local AAP leaders were in collusion and conspired to prevent the candidate from contesting the elections. Congress leaders said that snatching a candidate’s nomination papers in the presence of the Deputy Speaker and senior police officials amounted to an attack on democracy. A heated exchange was also witnessed between Deputy Speaker Jai Krishan Singh Rouri and Congress leader Amarpreet Singh Lally at the SDM office. Rouri countered allegations saying that it could have been the handiwork of rival Congress factions in the area. “Our workers have been wrongly blamed", he said. He said that the candidate’s nomination papers were arranged again and successfully filed the same day.
Congress leaders demanded registration of a case against those involved in snatching the documents. SDM Sanjeev Kumar termed the incident unfortunate and said the police would investigate the matter.
