Bus molestation case lodged at behest of student leader, say police

Claim complaint linked to Faridkot bus damage case; victims cry foul

‘Chinks’ in police theory

• The bus number mentioned by the complainants in the FIR does not match with the bus shown in the video
• The CCTV footage shows a girl and her father got off the bus at Kotkapura bypass at 12.24 pm while the footage of the suvidha centre shows the time as 12.40 pm
• On the other hand, the victim got the receipt of her Aadhaar card enrolment application at 12.10 pm

Archit WattsTribune News ServiceMuktsar, May 20

The district police today gave a clean chit to the bus conductor of New Deep Transport in a molestation case.

The police have initiated the process to cancel the FIR lodged against him for allegedly molesting and forcing two minor sisters of Kotli Sanghar village to get off the bus on May 13.

The police linked the case with the incident of vandalising of a bus by some students in Faridkot a few days ago. They claimed activists of the Punjab Student Union had concocted this story by lodging a false police complaint to put pressure on New Deep Transport owner to withdraw the Faridkot case.

Addressing the media today, Kuldeep Chahal, Senior Superintendent of Police, Muktsar, said: “During the investigation, it has been found that Gagan Sangrami, a leader of the Punjab Student Union, had concocted the story to put pressure on New Deep Transport owner to withdraw the Faridkot case.”

The SSP played a CCTV footage that showed that a girl wearing a red suit along with a man had got off the bus (PB-30 E 9948) at the Kotkapura bypass. Another CCTV footage of cameras installed at the district suvidha centre was played, which also showed that the girl along with a man had gone there.

The SSP said: “The man seen with the girl has been identified as her father Jasvir Singh. The complainants changed their statements a number of times. Earlier, they had stated that both sisters had gone to Muktsar. Then they claimed that the elder one went to the suvidha centre with her father.”

“Besides, a differently abled boy, Manpreet Singh, whose has been named in the complaint as eyewitness was not even present in Muktsar at that particular time. He had gone to Bathinda. We have tracked his cell phone location.”

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SSP’s clarification

The complainant might have noted a wrong number. Further, the suvidha centre in charge has given in writing that the timing of CCTV cameras was running nearly 20-30 minutes in advance, which has been corrected now.

— Kuldeep Chahal, Senior Superintendent of Police, Muktsar