A day after Congress party urged the Election Commission to disqualify SAD-BJP combine candidate Swaran Salaria for concealing information regarding a pending criminal case against him, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Friday submitted a complaint to Punjab Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) demanding the same.
The party maintained that Salaria’s candidature be cancelled “for hiding facts about the criminal case against him in the Form 26 along-with other documents or affidavits that are required to be filled while filling nomination papers before returning officer”.
AAP’s Punjab unit spokesperson Jastej Singh, in the complaint, mentioned that it was being widely reported in the media that earlier an FIR under Sections 376, 420, 506 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) was filed against Salaria on a complaint made by one Kamini Kaushal in 2014.
It also pointed that Salaria had filed a petition in the High Court for quashing the said FIR, and the same petition was still pending hearing in the Court.
“If these facts are true, then it goes a long way in proving that Salaria is guilty of concealment of material facts from the Election Commission of India,” added Singh.
“However, by deliberately concealing the facts of an FIR being pending against him, Salaria has transgressed the limits of the Constitution of India and has
committed an unpardonable offence for which clear punishment is envisaged under section 125 (A) of the Representation of People’s Act 1951,” he added.
Singh added that at the time of filing of the nomination, “the said facts were not within the knowledge of the party otherwise such glaring violation of law would have been brought to your kind notice before or on the date of scrutiny of the nominations”.
The party urged the poll panel to conduct a thorough inquiry into the veracity of the facts as revealed by the
media, “and if the same are found to be true, the candidature of Salaria should be cancelled at the earliest by following the spirit of the Constitution and the law as envisaged under the Representation of People’s Act 1951”.