Patiala gangrape victim suicide: Months after the ghastly incident and days after the death of victim, Punjab govt says will probe case

With the gangrape victim dead by her own hands, the family grieving and the arrogant perpetrators still under no pressure, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal came up with the standard evasive answer to crimes against women – he announced a probe to go into the incident.

Taking cognizance of the incident of suicide by an alleged gangrape victim in Patiala district, Badal today constituted a high level team headed by ADGP (Crime) Jaswinder Singh to thoroughly probe into the matter.

Disclosing this here today, an official spokesman said that being sensitive to gender IG (Crime), Shashi Prabha Diwedi along with IG (Zonal) Patiala Paramjeet Singh have been included in the team.

The 18-year-old victim committed suicide by consuming some poisonous substances in Badshahpur village on Wednesday as police failed to take action against the accused, after which one policeman was dismissed and two others were suspended.

On the night of Diwali (November 13), the girl was allegedly raped by two persons Balwinder Singh and Gurpreet Singh with the connivance of a woman, identified as Shinderpal Kaur.

The team would also look into the aspect of dereliction of duty by any officer right up to the level of SSP in the entire incident, he said.

The chief minister has directed the team to visit the village today itself to ascertain the facts which led the victim to commit suicide, the spokesman said.

The spokesperson further said that Commissioner Patiala Division, Deputy Commissioner and SSP Patiala had already been deputed to the village by the chief minister.

Meanwhile, Badal had also asked the Rural Development and Panchayat Minister Surjeet Singh Rakhra to personally visit the bereaved family on behalf of the state government, the spokesperson added.

With the entire country up in arms against gruesome crimes being committed against women, the pressure on the Badal administration to move on this case has increased.

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