Mohali: Hundreds of Congress leaders and workers on Wednesday staged a protest outside the SSP Office in Sector 76, Mohali, alleging high-handedness by the Punjab Police and demanding action against officials of the Phase-I police station. The protest was led by senior Congress leader and former Punjab health minister Balbir Singh Sidhu.Raising slogans against the Punjab govt and the police administration, the protesters accused the cops of harassing common citizens under political pressure. Addressing the gathering, Sidhu alleged that the SHO and a sub-inspector of Phase-I police station were unnecessarily harassing innocent people at the behest of an Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA.“The job of the police is to protect the public, not to intimidate or threaten them. Unfortunately, in Punjab today, the police are being misused under political pressure,” Sidhu said, adding that such incidents of alleged police excesses were becoming increasingly common.Referring to a recent complaint by a woman shopkeeper, Sidhu alleged that instead of helping the victim, the police misbehaved with her and intimidated her when she approached the police station for justice. According to the woman, she was facing harassment and abusive language from some individuals on a regular basis.She claimed that when she filed a police complaint, instead of taking action against the accused, the police allegedly threatened her and sent her back without registering her complaint. The woman further alleged that when she again approached the police recently, the SHO and other officials used abusive language and threatened to send her to jail.The Congress leader warned that if the authorities failed to take action, the party would launch a state-level protest next week and submit a memorandum to the governor and the DGP. He added that the party would also consider approaching the high court, if necessary.
