Chandigarh, March 12:Several top BJP leaders, were taken into custody by the police here today for allegedly violating prohibitory orders under Section 144 during a protest programme by the party in the city.
BJP’s national secretary Kirit Somaiya, party’s city unit chief Sanjay Tandon and former MP Satya Pal Jain and scores of BJP workers were taken into custody from Sector 28 as they marched towards the residence of Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal seeking his resignation for his alleged role in the booth allotment scandal, police said.
Section 144 which bans assembly of five or more persons had been imposed for the day today in the area and at few other places in the city in view of the BJP’s protest plan.
Recently, city’s top Congress leaders along with certain officials of Chandigarh Police and Estate Office had been indicted by an inquiry report submitted by a senior Union Territory officer to the administration into the alleged irregularities in allotment of booths in the city.
Chandigarh’s former Additional Deputy Commissioner P S Shergill, who had probed the alleged irregularities in the allotment of over 2500 booths during 2002 and 2008, had also recommended a CBI inquiry into the alleged scandal involving crores of rupees.
The BJP had earlier announced its plan to gherao Bansals’ residence seeking his resignation even though the Union Minister has denied his involvement.
The party had asked Bansal to respond to the report, claiming it had brought the roles of the Union Minister, UT adviser Pradip Mehra, former Mayor Pradeep Chhabra, former Deputy Commissioner R K Rao, three DSPs and eight officials of the UT estate office under scanner for allegedly making around 90 fraudulent allotments of booths in certain sectors.
Some Congress workers were also been rounded up today as they tried to gherao the BJP office in the city here in Sector 33.
———————–PTI———————