Miffed over the unscheduled power cuts, residents of Ghati Mohalla allegedly had spat with the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) employees near Chaura Bazar.

The residents allegedly thrashed the PSPCL employees and abused them.

The Division Number 1 police have lodged a first-information report (FIR) against at least seven people following the complaint of Satpal Singh of Sangrur, who works as a private lineman with the PSPCL at its Chaura Bazar branch.

The accused have been identified as Shankar, Akshay and Billa. Officials said that four of their aides were yet to be identified.

The complainant said that he was on night duty with two other PSPCL employees when a group of men turned up at the house in the wee hours on Saturday to file a complaint about a power cut.

Accused had come to lodge complaint

He asked them to lodge a complaint on the 1912 helpline number, but they had a verbal spat with him. As he objected, the accused started abusing him and thrashed him, the complaint alleged.

When his co-workers tried to intervene, the accused thrashed them as well, he alleged.

Hunt on for arrest, say police

Sub-inspector Narinder Singh, who is investigating the case, said that an FIR under sections 341 (wrongful restraint), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 506 (criminal conspiracy) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) has been lodged against the accused.

He added that a hunt was on for their arrest.