Punjab Police register FIR against preacher Ranjit Singh Dhadrianwale for murder, rape

Following intervention by the Punjab and Haryana High Court, the Punjab Police registered an FIR against preacher Ranjit Singh Dhadrianwale under charges of murder and sexual assault. The FIR was registered at the Passiana police station on December 7 in a case dating back over 12 years.

The FIR has been registered under Sections 302 (murder), 376 (rape), and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC. Action is also expected against the then SHO and DSP who failed to register the FIR initially.

On December 3, less than a fortnight after the Punjab Police was rapped for “novel and extra-legal method” of conducting an inquiry without registering an FIR, the Punjab and Haryana High Court asserted that the case revealed a grim reality.

Chief Justice Sheel Nagu had asked the state DGP to explain “whether the tendency of conducting a preliminary inquiry to assess the veracity of allegations in the first information has been stopped and if not why”.

The Chief Justice also asked the DGP to elaborate upon the action against erring police officers. The directions came on a petition seeking the registration of a murder case against Dhadrianwale.

Earlier the Chief Justice Nagu had asserted: “The case discloses sorry state of affairs, where instead of lodging an FIR based on the first information provided by the complainant on May 24, 2012, regarding an incident of rape and murder, the police embarked upon an illegal and unconstitutional inquiry to assess the veracity of the allegations.”

A senior police official said that following the statement of the victim’s brother, recorded in Chandigarh, the Patiala police registered an FIR against the accused.