Mann condemns punjab for Bittu's arrest in sedition case

Chandigarh, Apr 21 (UNI) Shiromani Akali Dal (Mann) president Simranjit Singh Mann today condemned the Amarinder Singh government and the Punjab police in particular for the arrest of Shiromani Khalsa Dal chief Daljit Singh Bittu in a sedition case.

''Daljit Bittu had simply taken up the cause of the farmers and never talked anything anti-national during his visit to Barnala where the farmers were agitating against the occupation of their land by the Trident Group,'' Mr Mann said.

Stating that the Shiromani Akali Dal (Mann) opposed Mr Bittu's arrest, he told UNI here that his party was the first to hold the agitation at Fatehgarh Chhanna and the two other villages, taking up the cause of the farmers there.

''Raising a voice for the farmers' rights is not an act of sedition,'' he said, stressing that Mr Bittu's arrest was baseless, as the latter did not say anything for which he could be tried in a sedition case.

Pointing out that Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Parkash Singh Badal never went to those three villages to join the farmers' agitation there, Mr Mann even alleged that Mr Badal, along with veteran Communist leader Harkishen Surjeet and some other senior Akalis, had financial interest in the Trident Group.

Mr Mann pointed out that it was he and his Shiromani Akali Dal (Mann) activists which went to the Barnala villages and held a protest rally against the occupation of the agricultural land by the Trident Group there.

Regarding the relevance of the Trident Group occupying the farmers' land, Mr Mann said if the said industrial group was interested in a sugar mill, then the state government should hand over the defunct sugar mills to the Trident Group instead of acquisition of the agricultural land.

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