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Paramjit Kaur protests in Moga |
Chandigarh, May 20: A woman in her late thirties who says two youths had been raping her and were now eyeing her daughter tore off her kurta in front of a police station yesterday, frustrated that the culprits were still roaming free.
Persuaded by a woman passing by to put her kurta back on, she was dragged to Moga city police station and charged with “creating an obscene act in public”.
The strip act came barely a week after a similar protest in Yamunanagar, 140km from Chandigarh, by a young nurse who claimed she was gang-raped. It led to the 25-year-old woman’s detention before a magistrate freed her on bail.
In Moga, Paramjit Kaur, a Mazhabi (Dalit) Sikh, alleged that her brother-in-law Karamjit Singh’s son Shinder and his friend Sonu, both residents of Ghal Kalan village, had been raping her and had now turned their attention on her 17-year-old daughter.
Paramjit claimed the two beat her up mercilessly when she resisted. “I was rushed to the civil hospital at Moga with severe injuries in my right leg and remained there for many days.”
An assistant sub-inspector from Ghal Kalan police station recorded her statement in hospital. Her daughter’s statement was also recorded but no FIR was registered against the culprits, she said.
“I have tried to save her honour till now. I have been beaten mercilessly by them whenever I have resisted their sinister moves,” Paramjit said on a mobile phone.
Efforts to contact her later proved futile.
Eyewitnesses said Paramjit took her kurta off and started screaming for justice in the middle of the highway leading to Ferozepur. When she tried to move towards the SSP’s office, she was overpowered by male policemen.
Moga SSP Ashok Baath, however, said Paramjit had cooked up the story of rape as she had “developed an illicit relationship” with Shinder and had even apologised to the village panchayat for her allegations. “But we are investigating.”
Ghal Kalan station house officer Balwinder Singh Bhullar also claimed that Paramjit, whose husband Lakshman Singh had left her, was lying. “We are investigating and action would be taken accordingly,” he said.
District magistrate Satwant Singh Johal has ordered a probe and asked for a report within a week.
Enquiries by The Telegraph revealed that Paramjit took off her kurta in the middle of a busy road in protest as she felt the police were trying to protect the guilty who are said to be close to the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal.
“Both Shinder and Sonu are active Akali Dal workers and are influential in the area,” a district official said.
In Yamunanagar, the young nurse claimed she was gangraped when she went out to fetch water while visiting an acquaintance. Her family claims the rapists are “influential persons” and have been pressuring the police not to act.