Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has condemned the Moga bus molestation incident in Punjab.
A 38-year-old and her daughter were molested in a moving bus in Moga. Police say they jumped off the bus to escape.
The bus belonged to Orbit Aviation, a transport company owned and run by Badal’s son and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal.
AAP alleges that Orbit’s buses violate all rules in Punjab emboldened by the company’s political links. The party’s Bhagwat Mann remarked in derision, “Every Orbit driver thinks he is Sukhbir Badal.”
“Unfortunately it does,” Chief Minister Badal said, when asked whether the bus belonged to his family’s company. “But I have never taken interest in it... No matter who the bus belongs to, I’m very sad that such a thing has happened,” he added.
Some of the culprits have been arrested. The state police is looking for the rest. They will be caught and brought to justice.
– Parkash Singh Badal
Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal condemned the incident and said that police were taking swift action against the accused. She also declared that the state will ensure that the guilty get stringent punishment.
Here is what Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal had to say:
Victim Died on the Spot
The teenage girl died, while her mother sustained serious injuries when they allegedly jumped out of a moving bus to escape their molesters.
Police said that the 16-year-old died on the spot in the horrific incident which occurred last evening near Gill village,10 kilometres from Moga.
Her injured 38-year-old mother was rushed to Moga Civil hospital.
Though police said that the woman and her daughter jumped off the bus as the driver refused their plea to stop the vehicle, there were also reports claiming that the two were pushed out of the vehicle by the accused.
Sequence of Events: Police Version
According to Moga’s Superintendent of Police (Detective) HS Pannu, the woman and her daughter – belonging to Landeh village, 5 km from Bhagapurana – boarded the almost empty bus to travel from Moga to Bhagapurana.
The helper of the bus started molesting the mother and continued to ignore her repeated pleas to let her go, he said. The accused also allegedly did not spare her daughter and molested her as well.
When the woman pleaded with the bus conductor and driver to stop the bus, they ignored her. In desperation, the woman jumped out of the moving bus and her daughter also followed suit.
The woman’s 10-year-old son was also accompanying them at the time of the incident. However, he continued to remain seated inside the bus and was later handed over to the family by the police.
The woman and her daughter were rushed to the hospital by passersby. Immediately thereafter, the driver, conductor and helper of the bus fled, police said.
Pannu said the bus has been impounded and a case has been registered under Sections 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) and 34 (common intention) of the IPC.
After recording the statement of the mother, Pannu claimed that a police party has been dispatched to the headquarters of Orbit company in Bathinda to enquire about the driver, conductor and helper and to gather other details.
Punjab Congress President Pratap Singh Bajwa, who went to Moga to meet the injured woman, said the Punjab and Haryana High Court should take suo motu action.
“The district administration and the police will never act against this transport company. My request to the Chief Justice is that in the interest of justice, on humanitarian grounds, you please take up this matter suo motu and order a time-bound judicial inquiry,” he said.
AAP MP Mann in a direct riposte to Badal, declared, “Punjab has become the safest place for criminals”.
(With inputs from PTI)
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