Congress leader Dimpa goes missing to avoid arrest

Amritsar, Mar 14 (UNI) Congress leader Jasbir Singh Dimpa, who lost the elections from the Beas Assembly constituency, today reportedly went missing to avoid his arrest in a criminal case against him.

The case was registered against him and 12 others following the death of a Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) worker on January 29.

Admitting that Dimpa could not be traced, Majitha SSP Lok Nath Angra said the police was raiding certain hideouts in the state to arrest the Congress leader.

''If we have information that he is outside the state, then we will conduct raids there,'' he said.

The whereabouts of the leader are not known since yesterday afternoon. He was not present in the Beas constituency where counting of votes was taken up today. He lost by a margin of over 4000 votes to the SAD candidate Manjinder Singh Kang, whom he had defeated in the 2002 elections from the same constituency.

The SSP said eleven Punjab Police personnel, including a Sub-inspector, had been placed under suspension on charges of dereliction of duty. They were assigned on security duty with the Congress leader and were suspended after he went missing.

The case against Dimpa, his brothers, Rajan Gill and Harmanbir Gill, a SP-ranking officer with the Punjab Police, was registered after the death of the SAD worker following a clash between Akali and Congress workers in the Beas constituency. Eleven others have been named in the case registered at the Beas police station.

After the clash, the Election Commission had postponed elections in Beas from February 13 to March 11 on grounds that 'atmosphere in the constituency was not condusive to holding of free and fair polls'. The EC had pulled up the Punjab Police for failing to arrest Rajan, the younger brother of Dimpa and others.

A Special Investigation Team (SIT) by the Punjab Police was constituted to probe the murder. The SIT while finding 13 persons guilty, exonerated Harmanbir Gill on grounds that the SP was on duty at Chandigarh. However, the case against him was not withdrawn by the state government.

So far, eight people named in the case, including Rajan, have been arrested and are currently in judicial custody. The bail pleas of Dimpa and Harmanbir had been rejected by the local sessions court and the two have now approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court for anticipatory bail.

Meanwhile, according to official sources, Dimpa could have gone to New Delhi to consult lawyers on the criminal case pending against him.

UNI