Non-bailable warrant issued against Bains

Ludhiana: A local court on Thursday issued a non-bailable warrant against Atam Nagar MLA and

Lok Insaf Party

chief

Simarjit Bains

and other accused in a rape case. The next date of hearing of the case in the court of judicial magistrate first class (JMIC) Harsimranjit Kaur has been fixed for December 1.

In her complaint, a 44-year-old woman had alleged that Bains had raped several times between April 2020 and October 2020 on the pretext of her helping her in a property dispute. On July 10, police had registered an FIR under Sections 376 (rape), 354 (sexual harassment), 354-B (sexual assault), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian penal code (IPC) against Bains, his brothers Karamjit Singh, Paramjit Singh Pamma, workers Baljinder Kaur, Jasbir Kaur Bhabhi, Sukhchain Singh and PA Gopi Sharma.

Advocate Harish Rai Dhanda

, SAD candidate from Atam Nagar segment who is also representing the woman in the case, said the accused didn’t appear in the court in the case, so they had submitted an application in the court, seeking directions to the police to arrest him and other accused. He said the court issued non-bailable warrants after they moved an application in this regard.

The counsel for the woman in a video message alleged that police presented reports before the court on Thursday that none of the accused were at home after court had issued bailable warrants. He alleged that this indicates that police was in hand in glove with the accused.

The counsel also said they had requested the court to issue orders to depute a specific police officer to arrest the accused. He alleged that police was openly helping the accused.

Recently, the Ludhiana police had submitted its chargesheet in the court after which the court had issued bailable warrants against the accused in the case.

Even as LIP chief couldn’t be contacted, his elder brother and MLA from Ludhiana South Balwinder Bains said they didn’t get the summons. He said if they would have got the summons, they would have surely gone to the court.

He said they have full faith in the judiciary.

Box: The complaint

In her complaint, the woman, who is a widow, had claimed that after the death of her husband, she was unable to pay EMIs of their house loan following which the bank officials were harassing her. In April 2019, during the Lok Sabha election campaign, she met Simarjit Bains who allegedly “advised” her to sell the house. Bains also “contacted” a realtor Sukhchain Singh who sold the house. The realtor gave her Rs 4.50 lakh and also got her a plot in Jassowal village.

The complainant had said that as she wanted money, she asked the realtor to sell the plot and give her cash. The realtor was giving a lesser amount, so she called up Bains to intervene. Bains asked her to come to his office. There the MLA allegedly raped her in his cabin, threatened her while asked her to continue the physical relationship with him. Then Bains “called” the realtor and “asked” him to give her money. The woman had further alleged that when she met the realtor to get money, he also pressured her to keep developing physical relations with Bains to get more money. She had alleged that the MLA kept calling her at his office and the house of a female worker of LIP Jasbir Kaur Bhabhi, who lives near his office. The MLA “raped” her several times there.

The woman had further alleged that MLA’s younger brother Karamjit Bains also threatened her and sent her lewd messages. The woman also alleged that PA Gopi Sharma had threatened her father to withdraw the complaint.