Punjab Congress on Thursday approached the Election Commission (EC) seeking disqualification of SAD-BJP combine candidate Sawarn Salaria’s candidature for Gurdaspur parliamentary bypoll, alleging him of concealing information about a rape case registered against him in Mumbai in 2014.
Submitting the documents in the office of Punjab Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Punjab Congress spokesperson Gurpartap Singh Mann sought Salaria’s cancellation as candidate for the October 11 bye-elections pointing that Salaria was concealing a rape case registered against him in the nomination papers filed by him, as required. The party maintained that the voter has the right to know about the history of every candidate.
“Salaria has deliberately concealed the facts in his affidavit that no FIR or charge-sheet is pending against him…Thus his candidature is liable to be rejected as per section 125 (A) of Representation of People’s Act…which provides for a punishment of up to six months of imprisonment or fine or both for furnishing wrong information or concealing any information in an election affidavit,” said Mann.
In a detailed note, the party mentioned that a rape case was registered against Salaria in Mumbai in 2014 by one Kamini Kaushal. Rape charges were dropped by the police at the investigation level, after which the victim approached the Bombay High Court, which asked for re-reinvestigation of the allegations, the party pointed, adding that the charge-sheet under section 506 of the Indian Penal Code stands.