Kuldip Bhatia

Ludhiana, July 23

After dismissal of petition filed by LIP president and Atam Nagar MLA Simarjeet Singh Bains in the Punjab and Haryana High Court against registration of FIR in the rape case, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) has upped the ante and served an ultimatum to the city police to arrest the accused within 72 hours and also present the charge sheet within one week so that the rape victim could get speedy justice.

Addressing a news conference here today, senior SAD leaders Maheshinder Singh Grewal, former MLA Harish Rai Dhanda, party district president Ranjit Singh Dhillon, Harbhajan Singh Dang and Amarjit Chawla said truth had prevailed after the hon’ble HC had upheld the orders of the lower court which had directed the police to register an FIR against Bains.

Senior party leader and former minister Maheshinder Singh Grewal said it was due to his proximity to certain ruling party (Congress) leaders that Bains had been evading the police net for a couple of months. “Even now the accused has been booked in the rape case, police seem to be hesitant to arrest him, investigate the matter and bring the case to trial for dispensation of justice,” he said.

Grewal and other party leaders said if the police still failed to bring Bains to book without giving him any special treatment and if there was delay of more than a week in submission of charge sheet after arrest of the LIP chief, the SAD would be forced to launch a mass agitation against the Congress government and police administration for shielding a political leader facing heinous allegations of crime against women.