Of 43 in fray, 9 facing criminal cases in Ludhiana
9 out of 43 Lok Sabha candidates in Ludhiana have pending criminal cases, including BJP and SAD nominees. BJP's Ravneet Singh Bittu has 3 cases, while Independent Kirpal Singh Kapuri has 6 cases.
Out of the 43 candidates contesting Lok Sabha elections from the Ludhiana segment, nine have pending criminal cases against them. These include four Independents, and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJ) and the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) nominees.
BJP candidate Ravneet Singh Bittu has three criminal cases pending against him. In February and March this year, two first information reports (FIR) were registered against Bittu. On February 28, Bittu was booked under sections 353, 186 and 149 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) at the Division Number 1 police station after he, along with other leaders of his former party, the Indian National Congress (INC), allegedly locked the municipal corporation (MC) office.
Independent candidate Kirpal Singh Kapuri, 57, has six FIRs under sections 420, 467, 468, 471, 120B and 465 of the IPC pending against him, the maximum among all candidates.
On March 16, an FIR was registered against Bittu by the Ladhowal police for allegedly locking the gate of a carcass plant in Noorpur Bet village on January 25. The case was registered under sections 323, 341, 506, 452, 148 and 149 of the IPC after the statement of Jaswant Singh, the watchman of the plant. The watchman alleged that Bittu was leading a protest against keeping the plant operational.
The case he is facing is under sections 353, 186, 332, 148 and 149 of IPC, for causing damage to the articles of agricultural office in Bathinda.
SAD candidate Ranjit Singh Dhillon has one criminal case pending against him. Division Number 1 police had registered an FIR against Dhillon on February 11, 2020, under section 188 of IPC. He was booked for alleged disobedience to an order duly promulgated by a public servant.
Case of ‘promoting enmity between groups’ pending against SAD (A) candidate
Amritpal Singh Chhandran from the Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) [SAD (A)] declared in his affidavit that one FIR under section 153 A of IPC was pending against him. IPC section 153 deals with the punishment for promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language etc and doing acts prejudicial to the maintenance of harmony. Under the section, one can get imprisonment for up to three years, with a fine, or both. The Fir was registered last year in Haryana’s Sonepat. To date, police have not filed a chargesheet in connection with the case.
An FIR was registered under Section 420 of the IPC in 2016 against Santosh Kumar from the Bharatiya Inqalab Party.
Last year, the Sahnewal police had filed an FIR under sections 323, 341, 325 and 506 of IPC against Amandeep Singh from the Sehajdhari Sikh Party.
Balvinder Singh Bitta, a Bal Singh Nagar resident contesting as an Independent, has an FIR under sections 295A and 506 of IPC registered against him. Sections 506 lays down the punishment for criminal intimidation and 295A deals with the issues intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs.
Independent candidate Rajinder Ghai has a case under sections 451, 506, 294 and 120B of IPC pending against him for two years.
Independent facing corruption charges
Independent Gurdeep Singh Kahlon has four FIRs lodged against him, first in 2016, second in 2019, third in 2021 and fourth in 2022 under sections 420, 323, 341, 506 and 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act and the IPC.
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