Girls beaten up, locked by factory owner: Women commission head

Punjab State Women Commission Chairperson Raj Lali Gill and Punjab State Child Rights Protection Commissioner Kanwardeep Singh were in the city to meet the family which had been paraded with blackened faces two day back by a factory owner on Bahadurke road, videos of which went viral on social media.

Earlier, it had been stated that both would brief the media on the issue, but the interaction was too brief. Gill, however, said that she was satisfied with the way the police had handled the matter and claimed that three arrests had been made in the case. She said that the owner was still absconding, but he would be arrested soon.

The chairperson also said that she visited the family and found that the girls had been beaten up also nd locked in a room by the owner.

Meanwhile, taking serious note of the “dreadful act”, DC Jitender Jorwal intervened, following which an FIR was registered against the owner and his manager.

Not only this, the authorities are learnt have also written to the Labour Department to proceed against the owner for non-production of records, to the PPCB to check consent to operate, the MC for checking the building plan, waste management and property tax details and Deputy Director, Factories, to check approval of building plan and licence to operate.

In the shameful incident a factory owner at Bahadur Ke Road here paraded a mother and her three minor girls and a son by blackening their faces and hanging small banners around their necks saying ‘yes, I am a thief’, ‘I have committed the crime’.

Not just that, the onlookers, instead of stopping the factory owner of this shameful act, started making videos of the family, clicked pictures and made these viral on social media. It is learnt that one of the daughters of the woman is soon to get married.

The factory owner had claimed that a CCTV footage showed the family involved in thefts. Instead of bringing it to the notice of the police, the owner took law in his hands and committed the act.