Thousands of women from the Istri Akali Dal, led by Bathinda MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal, today marched towards the residence of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, demanding his immediate resignation and the registration of a criminal case against his wife, Dr Gurpreet Kaur Mann.The police erected heavy barricades to prevent the Istri Akali Dal members, led by the Bathinda MP, MLA Ganieve Kaur and women’s wing president Hargobind Kaur, from marching towards the Chief Minister’s residence. The protesters subsequently staged a sit-in on the road and courted arrest.Addressing the women protesters, Harsimrat Badal alleged that the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) had become a den of corruption. She claimed that a predator against whom two women had filed rape and kidnapping complaints had been allowed to go free.CMO has strongly rejected the allegations as baseless and accused the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) of concocting stories.Asserting that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government did not believe in the ‘satkar’ of the ‘maawan-dheeyan’ of Punjab but had instead become a party to protecting a ‘balatkaari’, Badal said, “The culprit was also promised a transfer from Amritsar jail to Patiala jail and was even assured that he would be referred to a hospital where he would be supplied drugs freely.”Badal asserted that SAD would launch a mass movement across the state until all the accused in the case were arrested. She also demanded the dismissal of the police officers who had filed cancellation reports allegedly to favour the rape accused and facilitate his release from jail.Badal also called for protection to be extended to the rape victims who had registered complaints against the media influencer and demanded a CBI probe into the entire incident.“It has also come to light that five women had personally complained to the Chief Minister about the same predator, but the latter did not take any action in the matter. This should also be probed to ascertain why CMO was siding with rapists,” Badal said.Meanwhile, warning people that the fire could reach their homes as well, Istri Akali Dal leaders Hargobind Kaur and Ganieve Kaur Majithia appealed to Punjabis to unite and fight for the cause of the wronged women, as well as to put an end to corruption in CMO.