LANGAH MOVES HIGH COURT FOR BAIL
NOOSE TIGHTENS Says if I enter Punjab, I will be arrested and tortured at behest of my opponents
GURDASPUR/CHANDIGARH : A day after a duty magistrate in Chandigarh rejected former Akali minister Sucha Singh Langah’s bid to surrender in a rape case and asked him to appear in a Gurdaspur court, the district police on Tuesday issued a lookout notice for him.
Langah, on the other hand, moved the Punjab and Haryana high court seeking anticipatory bail, citing “danger to his life at the hands of the state machinery”. The HC is likely to take up the plea on Wednesday.
Langah was booked by Gurdaspur police on September 28 under Sections 376 (rape), 384 (extortion), 420 (cheating) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC on the complaint of lady police employee who alleged that the Akali leader had raped her repeatedly since 2009. The lady constable has also submitted a 20-minute video to cops.
In his petition in the HC, Langah, who was a core committee member of the Akali Dal and member of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, said: “The FIR against me is a result of political vendetta in a desperate attempt to win the Gurdaspur Lok Sabha byelection.”
“I apprehend that in case I enter Punjab, I will be arrested and will be demeaned, humiliated and subjected to torture at the behest of my political opponents,” Langah’s petition said.
Gurdaspur senior superintendent of police (SSP) Harcharan Singh Bhullar said copies of the lookout notice have been sent to all police districts across the state and also to the neighbouring states of Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir and Chandigarh.
The SSP said police teams are conducting raids and he will be arrested soon.
BURN LANGAH’S EFFIGIES: SIKH BODY
Meanwhile, the Kendri Guru Singh Sabha, a Sikh religious body, and Sikh intellectuals on Tuesday condemned Langah’s actions.
Kendri Guru Singh Sabha said Langah has “shamed” Sikhism by “violating” its tenants.
The religious body also gave a call to burn Langah’s effigies to act as a deterrent for others who become members of prominent Sikh bodies like the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC). Langah was a member of SGPC for 20 years.