An FIR was registered against Punjab legislature and Lok Insaaf Party Chief Simarjit Singh Bains and six others on rape charges on Monday.
The FIR was registered today after Court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Harsimranjit Singh on July 7 ordered the local police to book Simrajit Singh Bains, on the complaint of a 44-year-old woman.
A 44-year old woman, who is a widow, had filed a rape complaint against Bains around eight months ago. She had been protesting outside the police commissioner’s office in Ludhiana for the last five months, demanding FIR against him.
On November 16, 2020, the woman had moved an handwritten application to the Commissioner of Police Ludhiana for registration of an FIR against MLA Bains, Kamaljit Singh, Baljinder Kaur, Jasbir Kaur alias Bhabhi, Sukhchain Singh, Paramjit Singh alias Pamma, Gogi Sharma of Ludhiana.
But when no FIR was registered, the woman moved to a local court seeking directions for registration of FIR.
Therefore, after court’s intervention today, a case has been filed against Bains under various Sections of the Indian Penal Code including 376 (rape), 354, 354A (outraging modesty of a woman), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 120 B (criminal conspiracy).
The court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Harsimranjit Singh, on July 7 ruled, “Extreme circumstances call for extreme measures. Extreme indeed, are the circumstances in this case at hand. The hapless victim is a poor woman who has been afflicted by misfortune and has been openly exploited by the so-called saviour and his group."
"She knocked on the court's door after police turned a blind eye to her heinous abuse. The real question is whether a poor and miserable victim of sexual exploitation can expect to get justice by lodging a private complaint and collecting evidence from a place alien to her against powerful perpetrators. If the orders for filing the case are not issued, the complainant's whole case will collapse, and it would be considered a failure of justice," the court added.
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The woman alleged that she had come into contact with MLA in a property dispute. She was then trapped, got frequent phone calls and WhatsApp messages seeking a physical relationship with her and was repeatedly raped by Bains.