COURT REJECTS RAPEACCUSED AKALI LEADER’S SURRENDER PLEA

CHANDIGARH: Four days after he was booked on charges of raping a woman constable, Akali ex-minister Sucha Singh Langah — who has been on the run since —dramatically surrendered at a local court in Chandigarh on Monday but the duty magistrate rejected his bid and asked him to go and surrender in Gurdaspur.

The tainted minister was accompanied by his son Sukhjinder Singh Sonu and his son’s Chandigarh-based close friend Gunraj Singh when he arrived at the district courts complex. Since the complex was closed on Monday on account of Gandhi Jayanti, he appeared before duty magistrate Hirdejit Singh.

Curiously, Punjab Police, which claimed it was conducting raids across the state for the past three days, did not reach the complex to arrest Langah even though he remained there for a few hours. “We got the information (regarding his arrival) a bit late. By the time our teams reached to arrest him, he had already left. Our teams are still camping in Chandigarh,” said Gurdaspur senior SP Harcharan Singh Bhullar.

Chandigarh SSP Nilambari Vijay Jagdale said since there was no communication from Gurdaspur police and the court had not ordered the minister’s arrest, the role of city police was restricted to just providing the Akali leader security in court.

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 he raped her repeatedly since 2009.

LANGAH WAS BOOKED BY POLICE ON THE NIGHT OF SEPTEMBER 28 FOLLOWING A WOMAN’S COMPLAINT ALLEGING THAT THE AKALI LEADER HAD RAPED HER REPEATEDLY SINCE 2009