Punjab BJP Chief, Over 40 Others Charged For Violating COVID-19 Guidelines

Ashwani Sharma said the BJP workers were being implicated in "false cases" as they were raising voice against the Amarinder Singh government over issues of alleged corruption and liquor mafia in the state.

Pathankot:

Punjab BJP chief Ashwani Sharma and over 40 others have been charged for allegedly violating the COVID-19 guidelines, police said on Monday.

Mr Sharma and others have been accused of holding a political meeting at Ghartholi Mohalla on Sunday. They have been charged under the relevant sections of the IPC, the Disaster Management Act and the Epidemic Diseases Act, the said.

Photos of the political meeting went viral on social media, the police said.

Police official Mandeep Salgotra said that Vicky Rampal, an aide of Ashwani Sharma, had allegedly organised the political meeting at his ward in violation of the COVID-19 guidelines.

However, the chief of the Punjab unit of BJP dubbed the registration of case against him and party workers a "desperate move" of the ruling Congress to "muffle the voice of justice".

In a statement, Mr Sharma said the BJP workers were being implicated in "false cases" as they were raising voice against the Amarinder Singh government over the issues of alleged corruption and liquor mafia in the state.