Punjab: AAP MLA Manjinder Singh Lalpura & 6 cops among 11 found guilty of molestation; 8 arrested

Tarn Taran: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA from Khadoor Sahib, Manjinder Singh Lalpura , and 10 others — six of them policemen — were on Wednesday found guilty of molestation and assault of a woman 13 years ago.Additional sessions judge Prem Kumar of Tarn Taran district court said that thesentence would be pronounced on Friday. Police arrested eight of the accused, including the MLA, and took them to jail, said the survivor’s lawyer, Amit Dhawan.According to Dhawan, the survivor said she was “happy that justice has been served” and that her “wait of 13 years and six months paid off”.At the time of the incident in 2013, Lalpura was working as a taxi driver.

He contested the 2022 assembly elections from Khadoor Sahib assembly constituency in Tarn Taran district on an AAP ticket, winning 55,756 votes and defeating two-time Congress lawmaker Ramanjit Singh Sikki by nearly 16,500 votes.The incident took place on Sept 4, 2013. The Dalit woman — then 19 years old — and her family members were attending a wedding when a taxi driver and a few other men molested her. She resisted, but was assaulted by the molesters.

A police team arrived on the scene, but they too assaulted the woman. A video of the incident was shared widely on social media, after which Supreme Court took suo motu cognizance and directed the authorities to provide protection to the survivor’s family.One of the 12 accused, Paramjit Singh, died during the course of the trial, said Dhawan. The eight arrested persons are Lalpura alias Sabha, Ravinder Singh, Kavaldeep Singh, and former cops Davinder Kumar, Saraj Singh, Ashwani Kumar, Tarsem Singh and Harjinder Singh. Three other convicts — Gurdeep Raj, Gagandeep Singh and Narinderjit Singh — are yet to be arrested. Narinderjit was also a policeman.(The victim's identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme court directives on cases related to sexual assault)