Shiromani Akali Dal MLAs on Wednesday walked out of the Punjab Assembly, demanding action against two Congress leaders for allegedly harassing a key witness of the Behbal Kalan police firing incident who died in January this year.
Raising the issue during the zero hour, Akali MLA Manpreet Singh Ayali claimed that Jasbir Kaur, widow of Surjit Singh, who was a key witness in the firing incident, had alleged that a minister and a Congress MLA pressured her husband not to depose in the case.
Two people were killed allegedly in the police firing when violent protests erupted in Faridkot district over the desecration of the Guru Granth Sahib in October 2015.
Ayali alleged that Surjit Singh was harassed at the instance of the two Congress leaders and Kaur held them responsible for his death.
Surjit had allegedly died of cardiac arrest on January 13.
The Akali leader sought action in the matter.
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Thereafter, Akali MLAs stormed the well of the House and shouted slogans against the state government before staging a walkout.
Later, talking to media in the press lounge, SAD leader Bikram Singh Majithia demanded the dismissal of minister Gurpreet Kangar and Faridkot MLA Kushaldeep Dhillon for allegedly harassing the victim's family. Both Congress leaders had denied the charge.
Kaur claimed that she had approached Chief Minister Amarinder Singh over the matter and demanded action against those who harassed her but nothing was done.
Earlier, a high drama prevailed outside the House when police prevented Jasbir Kaur and her son Lakhwinder Singh from going towards the press lounge.
The SAD legislative wing approached Punjab Vidhan Sabha Speaker Rana KP Singh and sought action against the police personnel for the alleged breach of the privilege of SAD-BJP legislators by "laying siege" to their offices to prevent Kaur and her son from telling their tale of harassment and grief to the media.
Meanwhile, members of the Aam Aadmi Party staged a walkout after their pleas of tabling their "white paper" on power purchase agreements was rejected.
AAP's Sunam MLA Aman Arora during the zero hour said his party had framed a white paper and made several suggestions regarding the power sector.
If these were followed, power tariffs could go down by Re 3 to 4 per unit, he said.
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