Himachal Speaker lodges complaint against Congress MLAs for ‘manhandling’ Governor

By PTI
SHIMLA: Himachal Pradesh Speaker Vipin Parmar has lodged an FIR against the five Congress MLAs suspended from the state assembly for the entire Budget session after they allegedly manhandled Governor Bandaru Dattatraya.

The Speaker told PTI that the FIR was lodged at 3 pm on Friday.

The Speaker said he will give details about the case after reaching Shimla on Monday.

Earlier on Saturday, Assembly Secretary Yash Paul Sharma had told PTI that the Speaker has submitted a formal complaint to DGP Sanjay Kundu for registering an FIR against the Congress legislators.

Meanwhile, police did not give any details about the case with the DGP saying as the Assembly session in progress, they can inform about it only to the Speaker.

The alleged incident had taken place outside the Speaker’s office on Friday when the Governor was leaving for the Raj Bhavan after he cut short his address in the House following a ruckus created by the Congress on the opening day of the Budget session.

After the incident, the Speaker suspended Leader of Opposition Mukesh Agnihotri and four other Congress MLAs Harsh Vardhan Chauhan, Satpal Raizada, Sunder Singh and Vinay Kuma for the entire Budget session till March 20 on a motion moved by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Suresh Bhardwaj.

Speaker Vipin Parmar had said the Opposition members hit on the Governor’s back with copies of his address.

They also hit the bonnet of the Governor’s car, the Speaker had said.

Commenting over the issue, suspended Congress MLA Harsh Vardhan Chauhan had told PTI on Friday that they were waiting outside the Speaker’s office and just wanted to ask the Governor why he cut short his address but they were not allowed to do so.

He alleged that it was Deputy Speaker Hans Raj who manhandled the MLAs, a charge denied by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Suresh Bhardwaj, who said the Congress legislators had planned to create a scene.

Chauhan also said they did not have any intention of manhandling the governor.

“If any FIR is registered against us, we will not go to the court for bail, rather we will prefer to be arrested,” he had said.