Gujarat: BJP candidate, father arrested for cutting water supply after Panchayat poll loss

A Bharatiya Janata Party candidate in Gujarat’s Bharuch district and his father were arrested on Saturday after the water supply to Dehgam village was allegedly cut off for nearly four days following his defeat in the panchayat elections, The Indian Express reported. Both were later released on bail.

Shakil Malek, a BJP leader, had contested the Jambusar taluka panchayat election from the Kavi-2 seat and lost to the Aam Aadmi Party’s Sohel Shaikh.

The results were declared on Tuesday after polling was held on April 26. Police said the water supply to the village, which has a population of around 10,000, was stopped on the day the results were declared, the newspaper reported.

Shakil Malek’s father, Khalid Malek, heads the Dehgam village water committee. The village’s water supply system is managed by a committee that oversees distribution from a network connected to the Narmada river.

Videos shared on social media purportedly showed Shakil Malek and his father walking through the village with swords and threatening residents that they would not receive drinking water.

A case was registered after the videos were verified, the police said.

The two were booked under section of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita for disobedience to an order promulgated by a public servant.

The village sarpanch told the newspaper that other committee members had...

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