The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Friday demanded the Election Commission (EC) to depute a high powered team to Shahkot to ensure free and fair bypoll following the arrest of station house officer (SHO) Mehatpur Parminder Singh Bajwa on allegedly “cooked up charges”.

In a memorandum submitted to the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Om Prakash Rawat, they alleged Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh was violating the model code of conduct besides threatening law enforcement agencies.

The SAD demanded posting of a senior officer to overlook the Shahkot by-poll as well as deployment of para-military forces to ensure a free and fair election.

A SAD delegation alleged the CM was resorting to phone tapping of rivals and asked him to inquire into all these violations of the model code of conduct.

The SAD said Amarinder carried out a campaign against his own officer – the SHO of Mehatpur who was associated with the conduct of the Shahkot by-poll.

SAD leader Sukhdev Dhindsa said the CM had issued a clean chit to Congress candidate Hardev Singh Laddi Sherowalia despite the fact that his own police had booked him in an illegal mining case.

He said Amarinder also talked about phone calls made by Mehatpur SHO Parminder Singh Bajwa to political leaders of SAD and Aam Aadmi Party with specific times making it clear that the government was indulging in phone tapping.

The delegation asked the EC to take the entire issue of registration of criminal case against the Congress candidate as well as pressure put on SHO Mehatpur to rescind his decision to register an FIR against Laadi in its own hands.

Asking the EC to intervene in the matter immediately, the SAD leaders said this was necessary to instill faith in the electoral system amongst officials doing duty in Shahkot.

“By arresting SHO Bajwa the Congress government has sent a clear message that it will persecute anyone who tries to go by the law tries to take action against the Congress candidate”.

The Akali leader also brought it to the notice of the EC that SHO Bajwa had been awarded the DGP’s Commendation Disc in January 22 due to his outstanding policing achievements.

He said however when this police officer registered a case against the Congress candidate as part of his official duty he was charged with being mentally unstable by the same government.