Punjab: Khadoor Sahib AAP MLA Lalpura convicted in 12-year-old molestation case
Manjinder Singh Lalpura arrested after Tarn Taran court holds him guilty of assaulting and molesting a woman when he was a taxi driver in March 2013; quantum of sentence on September 12.
Additional sessions judge Prem Kumar on Wednesday convicted Khadoor Sahib AAP MLA Manjinder Singh Lalpura along with six others in a 12-year-old case of molestation and assault involving a local woman belonging to a Scheduled Caste community, leading to the arrest of the legislator.
The quantum of sentence will be pronounced by the court on September 12.
Following the verdict, the police took Lalpura, who was present in the court, into custody, and he was remanded in judicial custody, official sources said.
“Justice is being delivered finally,” complainant Harbinder Kaur, a resident of Usma village in Tarn Taran district, said.
Lalpura’s lawyers, however, said that their legal fight would continue.
Lalpura had defeated Shiromani Akali Dal’s Ranjit Singh Brahmpura by 16,491 votes in the 2022 assembly elections. Before he joined the AAP, he was a taxi driver.
Fifth AAP MLA to be arrested
The Khadoor Sahib MLA is the fifth AAP legislator in Punjab to be arrested by the state police and Vigilance Bureau.
The VB had arrested former health minister and Mansa MLA Vijay Singla for corruption in May 2022, while Bathinda Rural AAP MLA Amit Rattan Kotfatta was caught by the VB in a corruption case on February 23, 2023.
On May 24 this year, the VB arrested Jalandhar Central MLA Raman Arora in a corruption case that also involved a municipal corporation official.
Sanaur AAP MLA Harmeet Singh Pathanmajra was arrested briefly in a rape case before he escaped from police custody on September 2 .
On Wednesday, the MLA was convicted along with six others for molesting and assaulting the woman on March 3, 2013, at a marriage palace on the Goindwal road in Tarn Taran. She was caned and molested by the accused, including Lalpura. The incident led to widespread condemnation and the Supreme Court took suo motu notice, ordering paramilitary force protection for the victim and her cousin Jagjit Singh, who was an eyewitness, besides her family members and the then sarpanch of Usma village.
Eight cops among convicted
The convicted include eight policemen. One of them, head constable Paramjit Singh, died during the course of the trial.
The victim and her family members were attending a wedding at the venue when she was brutally caned by the Tarn Taran city police and the accused, including Lalpura. A case was registered under Sections 354, 323, 506, 148 and 149 of the IPC and also provisions of the SC/ST Act.
In June, Lalpura was in the news when Tarn Taran SSP Abhimanyu Rana was transferred at his behest. The AAP MLA was critical of the handling of sub-inspector Charanjit Singh’s killing in April this year. Rana’s transfer was carried out despite his making the largest recovery of 85kg of heroin in the border district on May 16.
Shiromani Akali Dal vice-president and former Khadoor Sahib MLA Ravinder Singh Brahmpura said Lalpura’s conviction showed the AAP government’s “true criminal character”. Demanding chief minister Bhagwant Mann expel the MLA from the AAP, he said: “This verdict has not only convicted Lalpura but also exposed the ‘staunchly honest’ facade of the AAP, behind which a whole system of crime and hooliganism is flourishing. After being found guilty of persecuting a Dalit family, Lalpura has lost the moral right to sit in the assembly.”
