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Friday, May 06, 2005

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Other States - Punjab

MP, administration lock horns again

Rajesh Ahuja

Close associate of Chandigarh MP arrested

CHANDIGARH: The arrest of Pawan Sharma, president of the District Congress Committee and a close associate of the Member of Parliament from Chandigarh, Pawan Bansal, by the local police on Wednesday on a complaint by the Chandigarh Administration for allegedly filing a false affidavit to secure a flat in the Advocates' Society has further aggravated the ongoing war of attrition between the Administration and the local MP.

Mr. Sharma, who was arrested on Wednesday evening, was produced in Court on Thursday and remanded to 14 days judicial custody. His bail application is likely to be taken up on Friday, according to sources.

Interestingly, the faction owing allegiance to Mr.Bansal is up in arms against the UT Administrator and Punjab Governor, S.F.Rodrigues, the Adviser, Lalit Sharma, and the Deputy Commissioner, Arun Kumar, for their tough stand against land encroachments in the City Beautiful. During the past couple of weeks intense pressure was mounted on the Haryana Government to repatriate Mr.Arun Kumar to the parent State by not granting him an extension while an open attack was launched against General Rodrigues and his senior officers.

Even though a few advocates have come forward to protest against the arrest of Mr.Sharma and supporters of Mr.Bansal are describing the "arrest'' as part of a conspiracy by the Administration, senior police officers say that they acted on the formal complaint by the Administration and registered a case against him after thoroughly investigating the "documents. ''

According to official sources, Mr.Sharma has been booked under non-bailable Sections 420, 467, 468 and 471 of the IPC. They disclosed that the complaint was registered after one Raj Kumar brought to the notice of the DC, who is also the UT Registrar of Cooperative Societies, that Mr.Sharma's wife reportedly had a share in house number 1149 in Sector 22-B but he himself in his "affidavit'' submitted to the Administration had claimed that neither he nor any of

his family members owned a house in their name in Chandigarh, Panchkula and Mohali.

They further said that the DC had routinely passed on the complaint of Raj Kumar to the police authorities for action.

Meanwhile sources close to Mr.Arun Kumar told The Hindu that there was no substance whatsoever in the "allegations'' made by the local MP that the "documents'' had been manipulated by the Administration. They further claimed that the matter was entirely a "legal one'' and no "vindictiveness'' was involved.

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