Haryana stalking case: Punjab CM Amarinder Singh condemns incident, alleges cover up

A day after condemning the  stalking incident of a young woman i n Chandigarh by Haryana BJP chief Subhash Barala’s son Vikas Barala and his friend Ashish, Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh on Tuesday alleged that an attempt has been made to cover up the case, according to The Indian Express.

Earlier, Singh had stated that there was an attempt to abduct her, hence charges should be registered under the relevant sections of the law. He also demanded that the police should be given free hand to investigate the incident without any political pressure.  

The chief minister also condemned the comments made by BJP leader Ramveer Bhatti stating that the incident has nothing to do with ladies working at night and it is clearly a case of gundagardi, ANI reported.

On Monday,  he also raised a question on Chandigarh police’s claim that CCTV footage o f the alleged stalking incident was not available as cameras were “non-functional”, he said, “So what if the footage is not available. The girl has made her statement and the police must act on it.” Referring to the issue of safety of women in Punjab, he said his government is taking steps to curb petty street crimes like snatchings to make roads safer for women. He further added that the drug addiction in Punjab had led to rising in such petty crimes, making streets unsafe for women. “We have cracked down on drugs and are constantly increasing police presence on the roads to make women feel safe,” he said, adding, his government had cut down on VVIP security in a big way and put policemen back on the streets for public duty. With inputs from PTI