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Gurdaspur, March 5
The retraction of the victim’s statement in the Sucha Singh Langah rape case has put the police in a tight spot as senior officers claim that they are unable to do much as the matter is sub judice.
The Additional District and Sessions Judge has fixed March 12 as the next date of hearing.
Interestingly, the woman, who is a Punjab Police employee, has put her colleagues on the back foot even as the police for the last several months had been trying hard to legally pin down Langah. Legal experts say that the retraction has considerably weakened the prosecution’s case.
On Wednesday, the woman turned hostile and even refused to recognise Langah in the court saying that “she never knew him and had heard about him only in newspapers.”
The DSP (Special Branch), Gurbans Singh Bains, said despite the fact that the woman claimed the she was not the same person in the video, forensics evidence proved otherwise.
The victim has also gone back on the statement she had earlier recorded under Section 164 CrPC (confessional statement) in front of the judge. She reportedly told the judge that she had earlier done so “under pressure.”
Police officers are dumbfounded at the sudden turn of events. They cited the fact that judicial officer, before recording the confession, clearly explained to the victim that she was not bound to make a confession and if she does so it may be used as evidence against her. “At that time she went ahead. Now she says it was done under pressure,” said an officer.
The SSP, Harcharan Singh Bullar, refused to comment saying that “the matter was in the jurisdiction of the court.”
“We have submitted all the evidences we had in the court. It is now up to the court to decide,” he added.
During the process of collecting evidence, the police had even visited the house where the video was prepared. “Once we received the complaint in September last year, we collected all types of evidence and presented it in the court just to make sure the woman got justice,” said DSP Bains.
