Singla booked for slapping official

Punjab Finance Minister Surinder Singla, pitted against cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu in the Amritsar Lok Sabha bypoll by the ruling Congress, was on Tuesday booked for slapping an Assistant Presiding Officer at booth no. 26 in Majitha. Meanwhile, a case was filed against one of Sidhu8217;s supporters for keeping weapons in vehicles forming the BJP cavalcade near Batala.

Majitha SSP Lok Nath Angra said Singla has been booked under sections 332, 386 and 353 of the IPC on a complaint by Assistant Presiding Officer Santokh Singh Dhaliwal. Polling resumed after a few minutes when the staff on election duty were changed on Singla8217;s complaint. Dhaliwal, an officer with State Bank of Patiala in Amritsar, said he was helping an elderly voter, who said she could not see the buttons on the EVM, when Singla barged into the booth. 8220;He started slapping me. The minister did not listen to my pleas and kept humiliating me,8221; said Dhaliwal, who is scheduled to retire from service in a couple of months.

Soon, Sidhu arrived at the booth and lashed out at Singla for assaulting the officer. 8220;Singla has accepted defeat. The incident shows his frustration,8221; he claimed. On the other hand, Singla alleged that Dhaliwal had interfered with polling. 8220;He was influencing the choice of the voters,8221; the minister said.

Meanwhile, on the case against one of his supporters, Sidhu said the vehicles in which the weapons were recovered did not belong to him. 8220;The Congress is blowing the issue out of proportion; there is nothing in the case. I don8217;t know who owns the vehicles,8221; the former MP said.