CHANDIGARH: A controversial police officer who claimed that he was kidnapped by the terrorists who attacked the Pathankot air base back in January has now been booked by the Punjab Police for sexual harassment of several women constables.
Former superintendent of police Salwinder Singh has been charged with sexual harassment under Section 354A of the Indian Penal Code at the Gurdaspur City Police Station.
Salwinder Singh was involved in a controversy over the January 1 Pathankot air base attack by Pakistani terrorists and was repeatedly questioned by the National Investigation Agency (NIA). He had then claimed that he was kidnapped by terrorists at gunpoint and later let off.
That was just one of the controversies he has been involved in.
Last year, seven women constables had lodged a complaint with director-general of police Suresh Arora in which they alleged they were sexually harassed by Singh. Inspector-general of police Gurpreet Kaur Deo conducted an inquiry and found Salwinder Singh guilty.
The women constables deposed before a committee headed by Deo and submitted a signed statement reiterating their allegations against Salwinder Singh. Additional director-general of police [crime] sent the inquiry report to the senior superintendent of police of Gurdaspur after which this case was registered.
Salwinder Singh is yet to be arrested. his anticipatory bail pleas in other cases have been rejected.
Back in August, Salwinder Singh was booked in another sexual harassment case on the basis of a complaint by one Rajnesh Kumar, who complained to Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal that his wife had been repeatedly raped by Singh with the ruse that he would give Kumar[her husband] a clean chit in a criminal case.
Rajnesh Kumar's complaint was marked to officials for an inquiry, which found that Singh was indeed the investigatiing officer of a criminal case in which name of Kumar figured. So the latter's wife approached Salwinder Singh to let her husband off lightly. "Salwinder Singh reportedly asked Kumar's wife to pay him a bribe of Rs 50,000 and raped her repeatedly, promising to give her husband a clean chit in the case," an officer said.