Protests continue in Punjab over girl's death, molestation

Chandigarh, May 2
The protests over the molestation and death of a teenaged Dalit girl continued on Saturday in Punjab's Moga town and other places, with the victim's family refusing her post-mortem until deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal was booked in the case.

The girl was molested and pushed out of a speeding bus owned by Sukhbir Singh Badal and his family's company, resulting in her death on Wednesday evening.

While refusing the authorities plea to conduct a post-mortem and cremate her body, the victim's family is demanding that a case be registered against Badal and others who own the Orbit Aviation Company.

The family has also refused to accept a compensation of Rs. 20 lakh being offered by the Punjab government.

Aam Aadmi party activists, led by Sangrur MP Bhagwant Mann, on Saturday stopped a Mercedes-Benz bus belonging to Orbit company.

Protests continued in Moga, Baghapurana and other places with people demanding that the owners of the bus company, namely Sukhbir Singh Badal and his union minister wife Harsimrat Badal, be booked for the girl's death.

The incident took place on Wednesday evening near Moga town, 180 km from here.

The victim's mother, Shinder Kaur, was also pushed out of the moving bus. She is in a government hospital in Moga with serious injuries.

She said that they complained about the molestation to the bus driver but he mocked at them and speeded up the vehicle.

Shinder Kaur said no one helped them inside the bus and she and her daughter were pushed out of the moving bus by the molesters.

The family of three, including a 14-year-old boy, had boarded the bus in Moga for Baghapurana town, which is 20 km away, on Wednesday evening. But some people in the bus began making indecent gestures at the mother and daughter and later molested the girl.

Following the public outrage in Punjab after the girl's death, the police arrested four people, including three staff members of the Orbit bus. They were booked for murder, attempt to murder and molestation.

Punjab's higher education minister Surjit Singh Rakhra also courted controversy on Saturday, saying that the Moga incident was "god's will".

He later retracted his comments, saying that he had not made them in connection with the Moga incident.

Senior Congress leader and leader of opposition in the Punjab assembly, Sunil Jakhar, said that the comments of ruling Akali Dal leaders and the actions of the Punjab government showed their insensitivity towards common people.

The Congress has said that if action was not taken against the owners of the Orbit Aviation company, the party would stop the company's buses from plying on Punjab's roads.

Following the protests, the Punjab police have started providing police pilot and escort vehicles to the Mercedes-Benz luxury buses being operated by Badal's company.

The company operates other air-conditioned and non-AC buses also and the staff of these buses have been known to violate rules and laws.

Sukhbir Badal had, on Friday, regretted the incident, claiming that the accused people would not be allowed to go scot-free just because the company was owned by him (Badal).

The opposition Congress has demanded that a case be registered against Badal and others on the lines of the cases registered in Delhi against the owners of vehicles in which rapes had taken place in the national capital.

Chandigarh, May 2
As protests increased over the death of a Dalit girl after being pushed out of a moving bus owned by Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal's transport company, state Congress chief Pratap Singh Bajwa on Saturday said Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and his family members lacked the moral courage to even go and meet the victim's family.

Appealing to all political parties and social organisations to ensure justice to the 13-year-old victim, Arshdeep Kaur, Bajwa demanded the resignation of Chief Minister Badal "for lacking courage to go personally to express condolence to the poor and hapless family who belong to the area that once used to be the Badal family's home turf".

"It is the constitutional duty of the chief minister to provide a sense of security to every citizen.

"You (chief minister) have failed to provide that and the horrendous, horrifying and ghastly killing of a young girl belonging to a poor dalit family in broad daylight is a shocking example of how law and order situation has crumbled and the ordinary people are too scared to speak against the goonda (rogue) elements who have political patronage," Bajwa said in a statement here.

"Your son Mr. Sukhbir Singh Badal is the deputy chief minister and your daughter-in-law Mrs. Harsimrat Kaur Badal is a union minister. None of you have the guts to meet the family and assure justice. Your moral weakness flows from the fact that your family business and vested interests dominate your politics and governance and are in clash with each other," Bajwa said.

The Congress president demanded registration of a case against the transport company's managing director Sukhbir Badal and other directors on the pattern of the case over the December 16, 2012 Delhi gang-rape, the Uber taxi service in another rape case and the Uphaar cinema hall fire case.

"There cannot be two sets of law. The permits of all bus companies owned by Sukhbir Badal must be cancelled and the buses stopped forthwith from plying in the state," Bajwa said.

The Congress leader said union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal misled the country by feigning ignorance about the ownership of the bus that belonged to her family and demanded she should also resign.

"Her 'Nanhi Chhaan' project for the protection of the girl child is a gimmick to gain foothold for political purposes. In case she was really sincere to the cause, she would not have expressed ignorance about the bus ownership and proceeded to Baghapurana without any delay," he said.

He said the Youth Congress would lay siege to the transport company office in Bathinda on Sunday (May 3), while the company buses would be stopped in Mohali on May 4 (Monday) in the first phase of the Congress party's agitation.