Pathankot cops book Teena Choudhury for extortion

Tribune News Service

Ravi Dhaliwal

Pathankot, May 14

Pathankot police have registered two FIRs against PPCC secretary Teena Choudhury, who in the last two days had been busy ‘raiding’ mining sites and offices.

One case has been made out at the Sujanpur police station, while the other one has been registered at Narot.

She is neither a state government official nor working with the Pathankot district administration. It baffles me on what basis she was entering offices of mining contractors? If she had a grievance, she should have got in touch with the police. What she is doing is blatantly wrong and unjustified. A senior officer

Sources claim that these were not illegal mining sites, while Choudhury has been steadfastly maintaining that “illegal sand and gravel mining was being done at these areas.”

The cops have not taken kindly to her ‘raids’ and consequently have booked her under Sections 384 (extortion), 380 (theft), 451 (trespassing with an intention to commit an offence) and 506 IPC (criminal intimidation).

She had also recorded her ‘raids’ on her mobile phone and later had made the videos viral. Congress Sewa Dal worker Gulshan Sharma has also been nominated in both FIRs. Before the Assembly poll, Teena was seeking the AAP ticket from the reserved seat of Bhoa. However, when she was denied the nomination, she crossed over to the Congress at the behest of then party MLA Amit Vij. Later, Vij had lost the election, following which Choudhury, too, was relegated to the sidelines. That was till she started hogging limelight this week with live videos of her ‘raids.’

Officers have questioned the very locus-standi of Choudhury. “She is neither a state government official nor working with the Pathankot district administration. It baffles me on what basis she was entering the offices of the mining contractors? If she had a grievance, she should have got in touch with the police. What she is doing is blatantly wrong and unjustified,” a senior officer said.

SSP Arun Saini confirmed the registration of the FIRs and added that “he will not allow vandalism of any kind in Pathankot.”

Teena has denied the allegations and claimed that she was working in public interest. Yesterday, she had submitted complaints against “unauthorised digging of sand” to Deputy Commissioner Harbir Singh with copies marked to the DGP, SSP and SHOs of Sujanpur and Narot.

Meanwhile, based on her complaint that illegal sand digging was going on in river Ravi in Bhoa, an FIR under the Mines and Mineral (Development and Regulation) Act has been registered against unidentified persons at the Taragarh police station. “Further investigations are on,” said SSP Saini.

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