Gurugram: The Haryana Police allegedly stopped a convoy carrying around 18 Tijara municipal councillors at a toll plaza near Panchkula on Sunday night and took them to an undisclosed place, Rajasthan Congress leader Imran Khan said Monday.
The councillors were returning from Himachal Pradesh to vote in the election of the Tijara Council chairperson, scheduled for 3 pm on Monday. The Panchkula Police have not responded to ThePrint’s queries.
Khan says he reached the Pinjore police station in Haryana’s Panchkula district early on Monday, looking for 18 councillors he could not find. In a video posted on his Facebook page from his vehicle while on way to Pinjore, Khan alleged that the councillors returning from Himachal Pradesh have been taken away by the police after stopping them on the pretext of verifying their identities.
Khan alleged that the councillors of Tijara Municipal Council in Rajasthan were on their way home from Himachal on Sunday night. They were to vote on Monday for the council’s chairperson. Khan, a Congress leader from Tijara, alleges the Haryana Police stopped their convoy at a toll plaza near Panchkula and took them away.
Speaking to ThePrint on phone, Khan alleged armed Haryana policemen stopped the vehicles at the toll plaza and took the councillors to an undisclosed destination.
“As per our information, they have been lodged at a place in Morni Hills,” Khan said. “Their vehicles were first parked at the traffic police station. However, when I came from Tijara in the morning with my supporters and started protest, the vehicles have been parked on the roads as unclaimed vehicles. This is murder of democracy.”
Family members of the councillors and Congress workers from Rajasthan gathered at the police station, he said, adding that they were sitting on a dharna and raising slogans.
Khan contested the last Vidhan Sabha election from Tijara, Rajasthan and lost to Mahant Balak Nath of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Voting for the chairperson is scheduled for 3 pm. Khan said that even if the councillors were freed now, they could not reach Tijara in time.
Tijara municipality is located in the Khairthal-Tijara district of Rajasthan and comes under the Alwar Lok Sabha constituency. This comes under the National Capital Region (NCR). The town, with a sizeable population of Meo Muslims, is part of the historic Mewat region, and is located nearly 44 km from Nuh, Haryana.
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The Himachal move
According to Congress leaders, around 18 councillors had been taken to Himachal, where the party is in power, to keep them together ahead of the vote. They started for Rajasthan on Sunday night in a bus and eight other vehicles.
The 35-member council has 31 Independents, three from the BJP and one from the Congress. The Congress claims it has the support of 17 Independents, which, with its own councillor, makes 18 and a majority.
Congress leaders alleged that some of the vehicles in which policemen came had no number plates, while a few had plates covered. ThePrint could not independently verify this.
In a Facebook post from outside the Pinjore police station, Khan urged supporters to approach the Tijara returning officer, register their protest and ask for the election to be stopped.
“How will this election be held when they have made our councillors disappear?” he wrote in Hindi. “I am sitting outside the Pinjore police station.”
He alleged that “private goons and police together” had looted his people at the Panchkula toll. “They are killing time by talking to us and have not yet handed over our councillors. They will give them when the (voting) time is over.”
Khan added that the Congress would no longer take the councillors back. “They are of no use to us now,” he wrote.
He also addressed Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini directly. “We did not expect this from you, that you would get involved in such petty matters,” he wrote. “What you have done today has shamed everyone.”
Khan demanded that the election for the chairperson of the Tijara Municipal Council should be postponed, and that the councillors released so that the election could be held in a democratic manner.
Police silent
ThePrint tried to contact Pinjore Station House Officer (SHO) Rajesh Kumar for his comments. A call to his phone was answered by a person, who said ‘SHO Saab’ had gone somewhere and left his phone behind.
When his comments were sought on the allegations by the Congress leaders from Rajasthan, the person replied, ‘Kuchh nahi hai ji (nothing of that sort)’, and disconnected the phone.
Panchkula Police Commissioner Pankaj Nain and his deputy Aditi Singh did not respond to WhatsApp messages. This report will be updated when the police respond.
(Edited by Nardeep Singh Dahiya)