Police ask Chandigarh mayor to look for absconding councillor

CHANDIGARH - A letter from the Chandigarh police to the city mayor asking her to make absconding Congress councillor Davinder Singh Babla available for investigation in a case has generated controversy here.

Deputy Superintendent of Police (east) J.S. Cheema had Thursday sent a letter to the city’s mayor, Kamlesh, stating: “Since Babla is an elected councillor of the municipal corporation and he is evading arrest, so you (mayor) are requested to make him available before the police so that we can complete our investigation.”

But Mayor Kamlesh told IANS here Friday: “We want strict action against the police officer who sent the letter to me, and we will meet the IG (inspector general) of Chandigarh police in this regard.”

Congress leaders, who are not on the best of terms with Punjab Governor and union territory (UT) administrator S.F. Rodrigues, have accused him of trying to target party leaders.

“We are taking this issue very seriously as it has never happened in the past. We have sent a communication to the home ministry through our local MP and union minister Pawan Kumar Bansal.”

“We cannot tolerate the atrocities of the administration anymore. At the behest of the UT administrator, police are unnecessarily harassing Congress leaders by raiding their houses at odd hours. Depending on the circumstances, we can also go to Delhi to put forward our case.”

Chandigarh police had registered a case against Babla for irregularities in the allotment of sheds in the Sector 26 grain market here and for misguiding senior administration officials.

“The mayor is the first person of Chandigarh and by writing a letter to her, Chandigarh police have diminished the image of the mayor’s office. Last week, Babla had many times approached police and offered his help but nobody questioned him,” said Subhash Chawla, former mayor and senior Congress leader here.

“When a local court rejected his (Babla’s) bail plea Sep 12, the police announced him as absconding. It proves that they are working under the pressure of administrator S.F. Rodrigues, who is trying his best to tarnish the clean image of the Congress,” said Chawla.

Congress leaders are claiming that police registered a case only against Babla whereas others, including a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, were also in the shed allotment committee but were spared by police.

Babla had also filed another bail plea in the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which is pending.

Chandigarh police officials, however, say there is no harm in seeking the mayor’s help in solving a case.

“We know our limitations very well and Congress leaders have blown this issue out of proportion. We have full respect for the mayor and police have not denigrated the reputation of this seat. Police had just sought her help in solving this case,” a senior official of Chandigarh police, requesting not to be named, told IANS.

Relations between UT administrator S.F. Rodrigues and local Congress leaders have never been cordial in the past few years. Congress leaders have strongly condemned various projects like Film-city and Medi-city initiated by Rodrigues.