CHANDIGARH: The Akali leaders Parkash Singh Badal G.S.Tohra and Simranjit Singh Mann who are to be released from detention would be morally bound to utilize their freedom for eye treatment and not for launching any action plan to destabilize the elected Government in the State official sources said here.

The sources said that the government had decided to set them free on specific representations from them supported by medical opinion about the urgency of the treatment they required. While Badal and Tohra need to be operated upon for a cataract Mann is said to be suffering from optical myopia.

The cases under the TADA were registered against the trio on the basis of an objectionable poster they had alleged signed. As the cases are still under investigation no challan has been put in any court. The police will withdraw the cases as nothing substantially incriminating has been found against them the sources said Badal wants to go to the USA for extraction of a cataract from his left eye through a posterior chamber lens implant. The cataract was extracted from his right eye earlier with a similar therapy. According to reports Tohra would prefer to be treated by the eye surgeon of Amritsar who had treated him once. It is yet not known who would be Manns ophthalmologist.

The Government is also unlikely to oppose any bail applications on behalf of the Akali leaders in the courts of the magistrates who had sent them to judicial custody. But it is unlikely that the trio will move such applications

Official sources also said that if the released leaders were to indulge in any activity considered prejudicial to peace the law would take its course. They can criticize the policies of the government short of inciting violence.

The government however is determined to proceed against those who organize non-cooperation movements and create hurdles in the way of procurement of wheat in regular markets. A similar approach would be adopted towards those who block supplies from rural areas to the urban areas.

Article extracted from this publication >> April 24, 1992