Sucha Singh Langah Sucha Singh Langah

Sucha Singh Langah, the former Punjab minister and Shiromani Akali Dal leader, who had been booked on rape charges, has not yet surrendered to the police, though he had said in a statement that he would turn himself in to the police on Saturday.

His laywer, who did not wish to be named, said Langah would surrender in court but the timing of the surrender was “not decided”.

Langah was booked on the complaint of a woman at Gurdaspur city police station on Friday.

The timing of the case against Langah, which he questioned in his statement, has added an edge to the otherwise dull Gurdaspur by-election, scheduled to be held on October 8.

While SAD was quick to accept his resignation from all party posts, the BJP candidate for the by-election, Sawarn Singh Salaria, has strongly defended Langah whose assembly constituency Dera Baba Nanak falls in Gurdaspur parliamentary constituency.

Langah was elected from Dera Baba Nanak a few times, though he lost both the 2017 and 2012 elections.

BJP and SAD have long been allies in the state. Asked if rape charges against Langah would damage his election campaign, Salaria told The Indian Express, “You are yourself wise enough. The incident allegedly happened in 2009. Now it is 2017. How much these allegations are justified?”

“Congress is so frustrated that they received complaint over night and registered the case. They have done nothing in the last six months and have nothing to show on report card. So now they have been making up things. Jakhar is an outsider. He cannot win from his home constituency in Assembly elections. Now he wants to become MP from Gurdaspur,” Salaria said.

He said he was not defending rape, but maintained that Congress was afraid of Langah as he was “a powerful and leader of masses”.

Congress candidate Sunil Jakhar refuted the made by allegations by Salaria. “There is a video clipping of the crime. This is such a serious allegation, heinous crime. It cannot be brushed aside as political vendetta,” he said.

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