Ex-granthi arrested for ‘raping’ minor

Jalandhar, January 22

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A former granthi of a gurdwara in Sultanpur Lodhi has been arrested for allegedly raping a minor girl and molesting her minor sister on the pretext of providing them flood relief, the Kapurthala police said on Monday.

The Sultanpur Lodhi police registered a case against 28-year-old Pargat Singh of Baupur Kadim village in Sultanpur Lodhi on January 20 and arrested him.

In her complaint to the police, the girls’ mother alleged that the accused had violated her younger daughter when floods hit Sultanpur Lodhi and also attempted to rape her elder daughter. She said when her daughter began to ‘behave abnormally’, she and her husband got suspicious and on being pressed, the girl shared their ordeal.

The woman alleged that in October, Pargat took her 14-year-old daughter to a room in Sultanpur Lodhi where he served her cold drink mixed with drugss and raped her. He then threatened the girl that if she told anyone about it, he would kill her family. In November, he again raped her.

Her elder sister also told her mother that Pargat had taken also her to a room near a gurdwara in Sultanpur Lodhi where he molested her.

Sultanpur Lodhi DSP Babandeep Singh said, “The accused is a relative of the victims and called them ‘bhatiji’ (niece). The accused had promised the family that was living in a shelter after floods all help and taken the girls with him on the same pretext.”

The DSP said the accused had been sacked from a gurdwara in Sultanpur Lodhi around 15 days ago.