Punjab leaked audio clip: Harsimrat appeals to ECI for suspension of Patiala SSP

New Delhi: Shiromani Akali Dal leader Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Friday appealed to the Election Commission of India to order the suspension of Patiala Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Varun Sharma, besides taking disciplinary action against him and all other police officers involved in acting upon illegal directions to obstruct nominations and intimidate voters in the Block Samiti and Zila Parishad elections in Punjab.

The Member of Parliament from Bathinda, who submitted a memorandum to the ECI here, urged deployment of paramilitary forces in the state to conduct the elections and constitution of a time-bound high-level inquiry under the ECI to authenticate the audio recording as well as fix responsibility for mass-scale violence, rigging and subversion of the democratic process in the state.

Harsimrat Kaur also called for taking stern action against the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), including the cancellation of their registration as a political party.

The viral conference call, which was exposed by SAD President Sukhbir Badal and in which the Patiala SSP was heard giving directions to district police officers to detain Opposition candidates illegally in plain clothes prior to their reaching government offices to file their nominations as per the guidance of AAP legislators.

Kaur said these points to not only about rogue behaviour by SSP Varun Sharma but also a party-directed, institutionalised strategy of AAP to subvert the administration's electoral neutrality.

The Bathinda MP said there was no splicing or editing in the viral conference call, and voices corresponded to identified officers and important functionaries.

She said the actual pattern of nomination-time obstructions, detention of opposition workers and selective police protection to AAP supporters, as reported in Patiala and adjoining areas, further strengthened the conference call’s authenticity.

Asserting that the conference call should be subjected to a forensic examination, Harsimrat Kaur said this is necessary in the wake of the AAP government's attempts to dismiss the viral audio as inauthentic and fabricated.

She informed the commission that earlier, also in the case of the Tarn Taran bypoll, the ECI had ordered the suspension of then SSP Ravjot Kaur Grewal for partisan conduct and misuse of police machinery for electoral ends.

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The Hans India