Court acquits Sukhbir Badal in a poll violence case

FARIDKOT: A court here today acquitted Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal in a case which was registered against him and others in 2006 in connection with poll violence in 1999.

Judicial Magistrate, Satish Kumar, acquitted Sukhbir, who is also ruling Shiromani Akali Dal President, for insufficient evidence.

Sukhbir today appeared in the court here in connection with the case.

Naresh Sehgal, a Kotkapura resident, had filed a case against Sukhbir and a few others in connection with the poll violence that took place in Kotkapura in 1999 when Sukhbir Singh Badal had contested the parliamentary elections from Faridkot.

The case against Sukhbir and others was registered on the directions of the Punjab and Haryana High Court in the year 2006 after Sehgal had approached the court.

The high court had put a stay on the case in September 2008 but it was vacated by a single-judge bench on December 21 last year.