CHANDIGARH: Former Punjab minister and senior Shiromani Akali Dal leader Sucha Singh Langah was late Thursday night booked by the Punjab Police on a complaint by a widow that he had been repeatedly raping her since 2009.
A case on charges of rape, extortion and criminal intimidation has been registered against Langah at the Gurdaspur (City) police station.
The police booked the former minister after obtaining the opinion of the deputy district attorney. Earlier, a senior police officer investigated these allegations. The woman, a government employee, has also attached a video with her complaint. She alleged that Langah had sold her property fraudulently.
The woman in her complaint to the police on September 28 alleged that Langah had been blackmailing and raping her since 2009. In her complaint, she said she came in touch with him after the death of her husband who was in Punjab Police.
Langah had promised her a government job and forcibly had sex with her. He raped her before arranging the promised government job and then continued to have physical relations on the pretext that he would arrange for her a government job.
Confirming that Langah has been booked on charges of rape, senior superintendent of police of Gurdaspur, Harcharan Singh Bhullar, said that the woman complainant handed over a pen drive to the police as proof of the crime.
"She asked the police to provide her security and we will deploy police personnel for her protection," he said. No arrest has been made so far.
The alleged rape case against Langah comes at a politically crucial time for his party, ahead of the Gurdaspur parliamentary by-poll scheduled on October 11.
Langah is the president of the Gurdaspur district unit of the SAD.