Held for stalling panchayat officials, 5 farm workers get bail

Bathinda: Five farm labourers returned to their homes in Dabra village of Muktsar district after spending 29 days in jail. The Dalit labourers, including three women, were arrested on May 9 for allegedly stopping panchayat department officials from discharging their duties while they had gone to Dabra for auction of panchayat land.
Farm labourers Gurdev Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Sukhjinder Kaur, Gurmeet Kaur and Jaswinder Kaur were granted bail by a court in Muktsar on Tuesday.On May 9, the five had staged a protest to demand that instead of auctioning the land, the panchayat of Dabra should pass a resolution to allot five-marla plots to people who do not have a roof on their heads. At that time, as the protesters blocked officials of the panchayat department from discharging their duties, the police had arrested them and charged them with Section 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions) of the IPC.
Following their release from jail, Gurmeet and Sukhjinder said, "We only wanted the panchayat officials to spare land for homeless people as per the promise made by the state government long ago. We wanted the panchayat to move a resolution for land to roofless, but we were beaten up and sent to jail instead." They claimed that they were arrested at the behest of Malout MLA Harpreet Singh of the ruling SAD. The farm labourers said they were not afraid of going to jail and would continue to protest for plots. They also threatened to start a protest in the next few days.
The Malout MLA denied the charges. "I have nothing to do with the arrest of Dalit labourers. They are free to raise voice for plots," he said. tnn