Additional District and Sessions’ Judge Lakhwinder Kaur Duggal today issued fresh summons to the father, mother and brother of minor victim of the Orbit bus molestation case to initiate legal action against them for turning hostile.
It was due to their hostile attitude that the court had to acquit all four accused bus driver Ranjit Singh, conductor Sukhwinder Singh alias Pamma and helpers Amar Ram and Gurdeep Singh on July 17. All four were booked for murder and molestation and under the SC/ST Act on the statement of the victim’s mother, Shinder Kaur, a victim herself.
The court has asked the father, mother and brother of the victim to appear before it on October 25 and face trial for turning hostile. The 13-year-old Dalit girl, Arshdeep Kaur, was allegedly molested and thrown out of a moving bus belonging to Orbit Aviations, a company owned by the Badal family.
The incident took place on April 29, 2015, on the outskirts of Moga. Arshdeep was killed after she was thrown out of the moving bus along with her mother. Eyewitnesses in the case Shinder Kaur (mother) and Akashdeep (brother) of the girl, who were accompanying her, turned hostile during the trial of the case.
The mother had even failed to identify the accused named in the FIR stating that she “does not remember anything”. The girl’s father, Sukhdev Singh, had also turned hostile, saying he did not remember what had transpired. Akashdeep, a minor, said he remembered his mother and sister being pushed out of the bus, but could not identify the accused.
Earlier in her statement to the police during the registration of the FIR, the mother had alleged that she and her daughter were molested by the bus staff who used foul language and passed casteist remarks against them before pushing them out of the bus. The incident had led to nationwide outrage with the Opposition parties demanding the closure of the Badal family’s transport businesses.
The victim was cremated after widespread protests and the reported compensation of Rs 24 lakh to the family.
