Punjab Police additional inspector general (AIG) Randhir Singh Uppal has been booked by the authorities for allegedly raping and intimidating a 28-year-old law student of an Amritsar-based college.
The victim alleged that Uppal, posted in Chandigarh, was harassing her and making sexual advances for the last four months.
Meanwhile, Lok Insaaf Party (LIP) leader and MLA Simarjeet Singh Bains has come forward to support the complainant who has accused AIG Uppal of rape, sexual molestation and intimidation.
She along with the Ludhiana MLA Simarjeet Singh Bains held a press conference at Jalandhar on Thursday, alleging that the police were not taking any action on her complaint.
Bains told media that he would stage a dharna [protest] outside the CM’s residence if the police failed to take action against the accused AIG Uppal.
Speaking to media, the woman said that she first met Uppal in 2017 through her mother, a social worker and she used to call him ‘Mama Ji’ [Mother’s Brother].
“I was sexually assaulted after being threatening at a gun-point. He said that he’ll kill my family if I do not meet his demands,” she said in the press conference.
The Hoshiarpur-based complainant has put a number of recordings and chats on social media providing information on how she was ‘blackmailed and threatened for life’ by Uppal.Her social media post has since been shared over 5000 times on Facebook.
The alleged victim is married and mother of a 6-year-old boy, the police said.
Additional deputy commissioner of police Lakhbir Singh told media that a case has been registered against AIG Uppal at the Amritsar police station on victim’s complaint.
Mr Singh said these are non-bailable offences and the police were working on to make the arrest.
Uppal, however, refuted the allegations, terming them as baseless, news agency PTI reported.
This is not for the first time that Punjab Police officers have made it to the headlines for all the wrong reasons.
In July 2018, former Hockey player Daljit Singh Dhillon- a police officer- was sent to prison for raping and luring a young woman into drugs.
