AIG Uppal booked for raping, intimidating Amritsar law student
IN THE DOCK IG (crime and women) recommended FIR against officer after preliminary probe on the DGP’s order
AMRITSAR : Punjab Police additional inspector general (AIG, crime) Randhir Singh Uppal was booked by the cantonment police here on Friday for allegedly raping and intimidating a 28-year-old law student at an Amritsar college.
Additional deputy commissioner of police (ADCP-1) Lakhbir Singh said a case under sections 376 (rape), 376-D (rape by one or more persons), 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 354-C (voyeurism), 506 (criminal intimidation), 498 (enticing a married woman with criminal intent) of the Indian Penal Code; Sections 25, 27, 54, 59 of the Arms Act and relevant section of the Information Technology Act-2000, has been registered against the police officer at the cantonment police station on the victim’s complaint.
He said these are non-bailable offences and the police were working on to make the arrest. The victim is married and mother of a 6-year-old boy, police said.
The victim, who hails from Hoshiarpur, had lodged a complaint with the Amritsar’s cantonment police on September 17 and also filed a complaint through police helpline ‘181’ the next day. Amritsar police commissioner SS Srivastava forwarded this complaint to the office of DGP, Punjab. A probe was marked to inspector general (IG, crime and women) Vibhu Raj, who recommended registration of a case against Uppal after investigations.
“As this is a rape case, we have constituted a special investigation team (SIT) led by assistant commissioner of police (ACP-headquarters) Richa Agnihotri. She will also be accompanied by SHOs of cantonment and woman police stations,” he said. The ADCP said the victim was yet to appear at the police station. “First of all, her medical examination will be conducted,” he said.
The victim had alleged that Uppal, posted in Chandigarh, was harassing her and making sexual advances for the last four months.
The complainant had a number of recordings of her conversations with Uppal and WhatsApp chats she had with him. She had even put these recordings and chats on social media, seeking justice and alleging that the police were not looking into her complaint. She reportedly produced these recordings before the probe officer at Chandigarh.
Apart from this, she, along with Lok Insaaf Party (LIP) leader and MLA Simarjeet Singh Bains, held a press conference at Jalandhar on Thursday, alleging that the police were not taking any action on her complaint.
Uppal, however, refuted the allegations, terming them as baseless, news agency PTI reported.
28YEAROLD WOMAN HAD ALSO SUBMITTED RECORDINGS OF HER CONVERSATIONS WITH THE ACCUSED AIG AND WHATSAPP CHATS SHE HAD WITH HIM