Akali Dal President Sukhbir Badal Booked for Blocking Road During Protest

Chandigarh: Nearly 200 SAD workers and leaders, including party president Sukhbir Singh Badal and former minister Bikram Singh Majithia, were booked for blocking traffic during a protest in Punjab's Ferozepur district.

Badal and Majithia had spent Thursday night at Manawala on the Harike-Patan road, demanding the Congress government in Punjab withdraw the "false" cases registered against SAD leaders and workers.

They had alleged that the cases had been lodged at the instance of the Congress dispensation.

The SAD had also raised the issue of "non-cancellation" of election process at four places -- Manawala, Makhu, Baghapurana and Ghanaur -- where Akali workers were not allowed to file their nomination papers.

The party had said yesterday that the government had decided to withdraw attempt to murder charges against 12 leaders and 90 workers in the Manawala clash case.

Their protest in Ferozepur was part of a over 24-hour-long statewide agitation by the SAD that ended yesterday after the state government agreed to accept their demand.

Several road blockades were put up by the party on key state and national highways, including the Harike-Patan road, during the protest that had left thousands of commuters and commercial vehicles stranded.

Ferozepur SSP Bhupinder Singh Sidhu said that around 200 people belonging to the SAD were booked yesterday under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including that for damage to roads and bridges.

They also face cases under the National Highways Act, the police said.

Former ministers Tota Singh and Sharanjit Dhillon; senior leaders Ranjit Singh Brahmpura and Kanwaljit Singh; and former MLA Bibi Jagir Kaur, who led the protest at several places, including Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Mohali, have also been booked, SAD spokesperson Daljit Singh Cheema said.

"Our senior leadership and workers, who were part of the statewide protest, have been booked," he said, describing it an "undemocratic action" of the state government.

"We are not scared. First the government accepted our demand and thereafter FIRs were lodged against our leaders. We were ready to get arrested during the protest," Cheema said.

The protests led by SAD leaders affected vehicular movement on the Ferozepur-Ludhiana, Amritsar-Bathinda, Bathinda-Mansa, Chandigarh-Mansa, Jalandhar-Amritsar and Kharar-Chandigarh roads.