Convict’s land sold to give Rs 90L to rape victim

Tribune News Service

Faridkot, November 13

To recover Rs 90 lakh as compensation from a culprit in a rape case, the Faridkot district administration on Tuesday held a public auction of 4.5 acres of agricultural land of Nishan Singh and recovered Rs 91 lakh as the sale value.

The land has been purchased by the Red Cross Society in Faridkot, which has three schools for differently abled and mentally challenged children, adjacent to this land along the Faridkot-Talwandi bypass road. The society also runs an old people’s home on this site.

On August 31, the Punjab and Haryana High Court had directed the Faridkot district administration to recover Rs 90 lakh as fine from the convict in the case of rape of a minor. Though the Revenue Department had given a public notice for this auction, no bidder reached the ‘Patwar Khana’, the place fixed for the auction, after which the land was sold to Red Cross Society for Rs 91 lakh, the only bidder.

The High Court had awarded Rs 90 lakh as compensation to the rape victim and her parents and directed the Deputy Commissioner, Faridkot, to attach and sell the properties of Nishan Singh and his mother Navjot Kaur within 10 weeks of the court’s orders.

Nishan’s family challenged the High Court order in the Supreme Court but they have not got any interim relief.

Nishan was sentenced to life imprisonment and his mother to seven years for supporting her son in the crime.