Congress seeks judicial probe into Muktsar molestation case

Tuesday, 19/05/2015

http://www.indiapress.org/gen/news.php/The_Tribune/

Muktsar : The state Congress SC/ST cell has sought a judicial probe into the Muktsar bus molestation case. Dr Raj Kumar Chabbewal, chairman, Punjab Congress SC/ST cell, who recently met the victim family at their residence at Kotli Sanghar village, said, “We demand a judicial probe into the matter. The police are harassing the poor family. They are being told to give statements again and again. The police are under pressure from the bus owner, who is a senior SAD leader.”

Meanwhile, the police last evening took the girls to identify the spot where they had reportedly alighted from the bus. In the FIR, the two minor girls of Kotli Sanghar village, their father and some other activists of the Punjab Student Union and Naujawan Bharat Sabha have alleged that the conductor of New Deep bus first passed some lewd, casteist comments, then molested them and forced them to get off the bus around 2 pm on Wednesday. The police have registered a case against the unnamed conductor.

In the FIR, it is also alleged that differently-abled Manpreet Singh from Kotli Sanghar village also got off the bus with the girls at Kotkapura bypass. However, Muktsar Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Kuldeep Chahal claimed just the girl and her father Jasvir Singh had alighted from the bus in question.

The victim family has already claimed that they possessed two bus tickets from Muktsar to Jhabelwali to prove that the girls had travelled on the bus.

Manpreet said, “I was travelling on the bus. The girls, who were seated in the front of the bus, and the conductor seemed to have an argument. When the conductor announced that the bus would not stop at Jhabelwali, I too alighted from the bus along with the girls at Kotkapura bypass.”

On the other hand, bus owner Hardeep Singh ‘Dimpy Dhillon’ has claimed that the girls did not even travel on the bus. He said the issue was being politicised to pressurise him to withdraw the case registered against some students for allegedly vandalising his bus in Faridkot.

Boycott Badals’ buses: Youth Cong
Muktsar: The Youth Congress activists on Monday appealed to the public to boycott the buses owned by the Badal family. They even distributed pamphlets among the people at the bus stand here. Sharanjit Sandhu, president, Youth Congress, Ferozepur, said it was high time that the people stopped travelling on buses owned by the Badals.