Video row: Principal among 11 booked for driving Chadha’s son to end life
AMRITSAR : The woman principal who accused Charanjit Singh, 83, of sexual harassment was among 11 persons booked by the district police on Thursday for abetting the suicide of his son Inderpreet Singh Chadha.
Among those booked are Chief Khalsa Diwan’s former honorary secretary, two members, and senior director of WWICS Global Law Offices Private Limited Company.
Charanjit was expelled from the primary membership of the society following a controversial video last week. The accused include senior director of WWIC Davinder Sandhu, former honorary secretary of the CKD Bhag Singh Ankhi, the woman principal who accused Charanjit of sexual harassment, two members of the CKD charitable society, Hari Singh Sandhu and Nirmal Singh, besides Inderpreet Singh Anand, Surjit Singh, Ummat, Kuljeet Kaur, Manya, and Gursewak Singh.
The accused were booked following a complaint by Inderpreet’s son, Prabhpreet Singh. “The accused hatched a conspiracy to get my father booked in a false case. We have evidences establishing that the accused forced my father to commit suicide,” said Prabhpreet.
Amritsar police commissioner SS Srivastava said a case under Section 306 (abetment of suicide) and 120-B (punishment for criminal conspiracy) has been registered. “Some documents are being examined, including a suicide note. Inderpreet’s family also shared some additional information. He said the police were still clueless about the whereabouts of Charanjit Singh Chadha.
Inderpreet, 52, expelled vicepresident of the CKD, committed suicide by shooting himself in his car on the Ajnala road on Wednesday. He was reportedly upset over the controversy that erupted after a video showing his father — expelled chief of the CKD, Charanjit — in an objectionable position with the woman principal.
Soon after the video went viral on December 26, the principal shot off a letter to Punjab director general of police accusing Charanjit of sexual harassment, besides charging his son Inderpreet with criminal intimidation. The father-son duo was booked at the Islamabad police station here on December 28.
AMRITSAR : A suicide note and another letter, purportedly written by ousted Chief Khalsa Diwan head Charanjit Singh Chadha’s son Inderpreet Singh before he shot himself dead in his SUV on Wednesday, have given a new twist to the suicide case.
Both the documents are handwritten and were recovered from the SUV.
In the 14-page suicide note, which got leaked on Thursday even as police chose not to share its details, Inderpreet says the objectionable video, in which his father, who is in his eighties, is seen with a woman, was not the only reason that made him end his life.
He says a fraud committed by his business partners and a dispute with his younger brother Harjit Singh over family assets also drove him to take the extreme step.
Also, in the four-page letter, addressed to Punjab chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh, Inderpreet claimed that the woman principal and her husband had honeytrapped his father to blackmail him.
After the video surfaced on December 26, the woman, principal of a school the charitable organisation runs, accused Chadha of sexually harassing her and charged Inderpreet with criminally intimidating her on phone.
In the letter to the CM, Inderpreet also accuses senior police officials handling the case of not holding an impartial probe into the matter.
He says the allegations of sexual harassment and criminal intimidation were false.
Police commissioner SS Srivastava confirmed the police have recovered the suicide note along with other documents from the SUV.
“We are examining the handwritten notes with the help of forensic experts to check their authenticity. We have to examine the role of every person named in the notes,” he said when asked about the mention of senior police officials in one of the notes.
CHARGE OF ABETMENT
After 11 persons were booked for abetting the suicide of ousted Chief Khalsa Diwan head Charanjit Singh Chadha’s son Inderpreet Singh, the Punjab Human Rights Organization (PHRO), a non-government organisation (NGO) led by justice (retd) Ajit Singh Bains, has written a letter to chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh accusing the police of acted in the matter in a selective manner.
“As per the law, the FIR should be registered on the basis of the suicide note recovered. But in this case, the FIR has been lodged on the basis of the statement of Inderpreet’s son,” said advocate Sarabjit Singh Verka, principal investigator of PHRO.
AUTOPSY CONDUCTED
A day after Inderpreet Singh, son of expelled Chief Khalsa Diwan head Charanjeet Singh Chadha, shot himself dead, his post-mortem was conducted at the civil hospital in presence of a heavy police force.
Though his family members and relatives were present during the autopsy, his father did not turn up. Charanjit is absconding since he was booked for sexually harassing a woman principal on December 28. Sources said the octogenarian may come for his son’s cremation of which will be held at the cremation ground of Gurdwara Shaheeda Sahib in Amritsar on Friday.
Additional deputy commissioner of police (ADCP, city-2) Lakhbir Singh said, “We will wait for the autopsy report to get more details on the death.”
IN A LETTER TO THE CM PURPORTEDLY BY INDERPREET, HE SAID THE WOMAN IN VIDEO AND HER HUSBAND HONEYTRAPPED HIS FATHER FOR BLACKMAIL