Chandigarh, March 16 : As many as nine Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) legislators from Punjab were booked on Tuesday for allegedly trying to confront and heckle Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar in the state legislative complex as the former demanded a resolution to repeal the three farm laws.
The incident took place on March 10 within the premises jointly shared by the Punjab and Haryana Assemblies here.
The booked legislators included legislative party leader Sharanjit Singh Dhillon and former state Cabinet Minister Bikram Singh Majithia.
A case under various sections under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) including 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions), 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt) and 341 (punishment for wrongful restraint) was registered in the state capital.
Earlier, Haryana Speaker Gian Chand Gupta demanded that SAD President Sukhbir Badal should apologise to the Chief Minister for blocking his passage, accosting and trying to heckle him and misbehaviour by his party legislators.
Explaining the incident, the Speaker had said, "Akali Dal legislators were sitting in cars much after the Assembly session (in Punjab) was over.
Our proceedings were over at around 6.30 p.m. and the Chief Minister was interacting with the media, they suddenly came out of their vehicles and started misbehaving with him."
"Such incident is really shameful.
I spoke to the Punjab Speaker (Rana K.P. Singh) over the incident and he condemned it and also asked me to apologise to the Chief Minister on his behalf," he had said.
The SAD legislators in a statement after the incident said they have always agitated for the welfare of farmers and they would continue to raise their voice against repression meted out to farmers and human rights activists in Haryana even if its government has registered 10 cases against them.
"We will not be cowed down by registration of any case against us as is being threatened by the Haryana Vidhan Sabha Speaker.
We are even ready to go to jail for the cause of the farmers. We will continue our agitation against the repressive policies of the Haryana government," Sharanjit Singh Dhillon had said here.
--IANS
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Source: IANS