Congress councillor, her son who organised event go underground
LOCKED HOUSE An angry crowd had come to Vijay Madaan’s house in wee hours of Friday, but couldn’t find anyone
Mithu and his family share a close relation with the local bodies minister and Amritsar East MLA Navjot Singh Sidhu, that’s why police are showing reluctance in taking action against him. LOCAL POLITICIAN ON ANONYMITY
AMRITSAR : Even as political leaders are making a beeline to rail tragedy spot in Amritsar that left 61 Dussehra revellers dead, Congress councillor Vijay Madaan and her son Saurabh Madaan ‘Mithu’, the organiser of the event, have gone underground.
The tragic incident took place on Friday evening when hundreds of people were watching the Ravana effigy being burnt during the Dussehra celebrations.
When the HT team visited the house of the councillor on Saturday, it was locked.
Saurabh’s father Raman Madaan, his brother and sister-in-law have also left the residence.
People close to Saurabh said after the mishap, victims’ family members and agitated crowd came to his house but he managed to escape, without giving any clue about his whereabouts.
After the mishap, the crowd at the spot was visibly angry and protested against the chief organiser of the event, Meethu, it is learnt.
Rajiv Sharma Dimpy, a Bharatiya Janata Party( BJP) leader, whose wife had unsuccessfully contested against Vijay, said that Saurabh’s intentions were wrong, which led to the incident.
“If his intentions were good, he wouldn’t have absconded from his house like a coward,” he said.
He said that the organiser is at fault and strict action should be taken against Mithu and other organisers for their mismanagement.
“Mithu and his family share a close relation with the local bodies minister and Amritsar East MLA Navjot Singh Sidhu, that’s why police are showing reluctance in taking action against him,” a local politician said, while requesting anonymity.
However, Chaman Lal, neighbour of Mithu, said the family of Madaans have good reputation in the locality and they always stand by people in bad times.
On asking then why Mithu left his house, Lal said that due to his security, the family had to leave the house.
“The agitating crowd had visited the locality and had he been there, something untoward would have happened. The crowd could have killed them. Even I would have run away in such a scenario,” he said.
Lal said crowds were raising slogans against Mithu till 2am and deployment of police force in the locality averted any untoward incident.
Meanwhile, the agitating crowds and the families of victims have been demanding action against Mithu and Navjot Kaur Sidhu, who allegedly left the venue after the mishap.