Chandigarh court rejects Langah’s surrender: ‘Go to Gurdaspur instead’
RAPE CASE AGAINST AKALI LEADER
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.
Clad in a spotless white kurtapyjama and blue turban, the tainted ex-minister was accompanied by his son Sukhjinder Singh Sonu and his son’s Chandigarhbased 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, who had been claiming that it was conducting raids across the state, did not reach the court complex to arrest Langah even though he remained there for a few hours. “We got the information (regarding Langah’s arrival at the court) bit late. By the time our teams reached the court to arrest him, the accused had already left,” said Gurdaspur SSP Harcharan Singh Bhullar.
Chandigarh SSP Nilambari Vijay Jagdale said there was no communication from Gurdaspur police regarding Langah.
Langah was booked by Gurdaspur police on September 28 on the complaint of a lady constable who alleged that the Akali leader had raped her repeatedly since 2009.
The “failure” of Punjab Police to nab Langah is seen by many as a ploy by the Congress government to cash in on the opportunity to target the Akalis in the wake of Gurdaspur Lok Sabha bypoll. “All news channels were showing Langah at Chandigarh court. How it is possible that Punjab Police, with a huge intelligence network, had no information on Langah’s arrival remained in court for over two hours?” said a senior cop.