Disqualify Salaria for concealing rape case: Cong
AMRITSAR: The Congress on Wednesday sought disqualification of Swaran Singh Salaria, the BJP-SAD candidate for the October 11 Gurdaspur Lok Sabha seat bypoll, accusing him of concealing facts about a rape case registered against him in 2014 in his nomination papers.
Addressing a press conference in Amritsar, state finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal alleged that Salaria falsified in his nomination paper that no criminal case is pending against him. Salaria was booked for rape in Mumbai on the complaint of a former airhostess working for his airlines. He said that Salaria had filed for quashing of the FIR registered against him under sections 376 (rape), 420 (cheating) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
Manpreet added, “The hearing in the case is on October 30 and the case is pending. Moreover the chargesheet under section 506 of the IPC stands. His candidature is liable to be rejected as per section 125A of The Representation of the People Act. We are going to submit our representation with the returning officer.”
Section 125A of the RPA provides for a punishment up to six months’ imprisonment or fine or both for furnishing wrong information or concealing any information in an election affidavit.
Salaria, when asked to react, told HT over phone: “Congress is anticipating defeat and thus resorting to cheap politics. I didn’t conceal any facts and I stand by what I mentioned in my nomination papers.”
The Congress has fielded its state unit chief, Sunil Jakhar, in the bypoll necessitated by the death of BJP’S Vinod Khanna.
Meanwhile, when asked about the reported hue and cry among government employees for delay in salaries, he denied any crunch, claiming that the salaries had been deposited in bank accounts of “all government employees”. In a lighter vein, he also said that even the CM and governor had got their salaries!
Commenting on the government’s struggle to motivate the farmers to avoid stubble burning, Manpreet said chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Tuesday suggested that farmers who would not burn the stubble should get a bonus of Rs 100 per quintal on crops. “Farmers need to understand that their act will completely destroy the ecological balance as stubble burning leads to pollution. By giving bonus of Rs 100 per quintal to the farmers, 80% of them won’t burn stubble.”
He also took a dig at the central government over taxation and said it had failed to implement the Goods and Services Tax (GST) in the “right manner”. “Business has been hit due to failures of the central government,” he added.