Even though Simarjit Singh Bains’s police remand was extended by three days, his supporters accorded him a stirring welcome, as the SAD councillor was brought to the court premises today. He is facing charges of assault on the Ludhiana (Central) Tehsildar Major (retd) Gurjinder Singh Benipal.

Duty Magistrate Jatinder Pal Singh Wehnipal accepted the plea of the public prosecutor and extended the police remand of Bains and other SAD activists Sarabjit Singh, Rupinder Singh and Jaspreet Singh.

When the police brought Bains to the court complex, his supporters showered flowers on him. On June 24 too, his supporters had thronged the court premises in large numbers to show solidarity with him.

Bains’s supporters have been holding protest demonstrations across the city with placards which say: ‘We too are innocent, arrest us too’.

Going a step further, Bains’s supporters today started a pamphlet campaign in favour of the SAD councillor. They got these pamphlets distributed through newspapers, which said that Bains was an honest leader and had become the latest victim of corruption.

The pamphlets read that Bains had been victimised by the corrupt bureaucracy as he had tried to expose the corruption of the revenue officials.

The pamphlets said though Bains was not present on the spot when Benipal was assaulted, and that he has been falsely implicated in this case at the behest of a few police officers.