Punjab Congress on Wednesday set four-day deadline for the SAD-BJP combine Government to register a criminal case and arrest Akali leader, at whose farm house a Dalit was brutally murdered in Abohar.
Congress legislature Party (ClP) leader Charanjit Singh Channi, serving the four-day ultimatum, demanded the “arrest and registration of a criminal case against Akali Dal leader and liquor baron Shiv lal Doda and his nephew Amit Doda at whose farm house Bhim Tank, a Dalit, was brutally murdered earlier by chopping his limbs while his associate was grievously injured”.
“In case of the government’s failure to act within the given time limit, all the safai karamchaaris of Punjab will stop their work in the State. This will be Statewide strike and no safai karamchaari in the State will perform his duty,” said Channi.
Channi also appealed to all the like-minded political parties of the State to come on a common platform to address this issue of the Dalit family.
Accompanied by senior Congress leader and Abohar MlA Sunil Jakhar, Channi visited the family of Bhim Tank earlier in the day and assured all legal help. “Such help would be provided to every Dalit family that is victim of such atrocities committed by the Akali leaders,” he said.
The ClP leader announced that a three-member committee of MlAs would be constituted in consultation with the state party chief Capt Amarinder Singh to probe and help the cases of atrocities against Dalits in the State.
Terming the SIT constituted by the State Government to probe the heinous crime of chopping of limbs of Bhim Tank and his associate as an “eyewash”, Channi said that going by the earlier experience, such probes had only been ordered to save the culprits.
Channi attacked Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal for protecting the accused who are part of the Akali Dal. He warned that the
Akali Dal-BJP rulers would have to pay dearly for working such atrocities against the weaker sections.
He assured them that the Congress would fight at every level against the Akali Dal-BJP combine to protect the interests of the Dalits in particular and the weaker sections in general.
“The brutal murder of Bhim Sain is an example of the brutal face of the Badal government that is anti-poor and anti-dalit,” he said.