Dimpa on hunger strike in jail, alleges harassment

Amritsar, June 17 (UNI) Former Punjab Congress MLA Jasbir Singh Dimpa, who is lodged in the Central Jail here in connection with a murder case, today went on hunger strike, alleging that he along with other co-accused in the case were being harassed in the jail.

In a hand-written letter issued to the media, Dimpa alleged that he and his associates were being kept in different cells in the jail to harass them and they feared that a conspiracy was being hatched to kill them.

He also alleged that Amritsar SSP Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh was holding the additional charge of SSP (Central Jail) in order to harass those people in the jail whom he got arrested on ''fabricated'' charges.

Dimpa said by going on an indefinite hunger strike in the jail, he and his associates would expose the ''repressive regime'' of the jail.

The former Congress MLA was sent to judicial custody on June 15 by the Baba Bakala Sub-divisional Judicial Magistrate.

Dimpa, who was MLA from Beas constituency from 2002 to February 2007, had surrendered to the police in connection with the murder case registered against him and 11 others following the death of a Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) worker on January 29 in Beas in a clash between SAD and Congress activists during the run up to the Assembly elections.

Besides Dimpa, those named in the murder case, include his brothers Rajan and Harmandeep Singh, a SP ranking officer with the state police.

Rajan was arrested earlier along with other co-accused and was also lodged in the Central jail.

The case was registered on the instructions of the Election Commission of India (ECI) which had pulled up the Punjab Police for failing to book Dimpa, who was then the sitting MLA from Beas and a candidate of the Congress.

The EC had postponed the polls in Beas constituency to March 13 after receiving a report on the law and order situation in the constituency from the central observor. Dimpa lost the election to SAD candidate Manjinder Singh Kang.

UNI