Gurdaspur SP held on charge of rape

Gurdaspur, July 4

The Moga police today arrested Gurdaspur SP (Headquarters) Gurmeet Singh after a Dinanagar-based woman accused him of raping her.

A case under Section 376 (2) (rape by a police officer after taking advantage of his official position) of the IPC was registered against him at the Gurdaspur City police station on July 2.

The matter had been under investigation since April when the woman first claimed to have been raped.

She claimed that she was pregnant when the officer sexually assaulted her at his home in Gurdaspur. The woman had approached the SP following a dispute with her husband.

He is the second Gurdaspur-based police officer to have been apprehended for allegedly raping a woman. In February 2019, Salwinder Singh, who was serving as the SP (Headquarters) here, was given a 10-year sentence after a Geeta Bhawan woman filed a similar complaint against him.

Like Gurmeet, Salwinder had to face a trial under Section 376 (2) of the IPC.

A special investigating team (SIT) was formed on the directions of the Punjab Police Headquarters, Chandigarh, after the Dinanagar-based woman levelled charges against Gurmeet. The SIT was led by Amritsar (Rural) SSP Swarandeep Singh.

The SP was arrested from Moga, where he had gone for a court hearing. A team of the Amritsar (Rural) police worked in tandem with their counterparts in Moga to trace and arrest the SP. DSP Ravinder Singh and Inspector Harjit Kaur, both of whom were members of the SIT, had gone to Moga today to take the officer into custody.