Former Akali Dal minister, wanted for rape, surrenders

Chandigarh: Punjab’s former Akali minister Sucha Singh Langah, wanted in a case of raping a woman cop, on Monday surrendered before the court of duty magistrate Hirdejeet Singh.

The court refused Langah’s surrender plea and told him to go to Gurdaspur. Interestingly, Langah on Saturday had failed to surrender in a court, as promised a day earlier after the registration of a rape case against him.

Langah, who was booked on Friday on charges of rape, criminal intimidation, and cheating on the complaint of a woman working with Punjab police, had remained underground ever since, police sources said.

Langah was booked under Sections 376 (rape), 384 (extortion), 420 (cheating) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code at the Gurdaspur city police station after the woman, a widow, complained that he had been repeatedly raping her since 2009.

Langah, who was a Shiromani Akali Dal core committee member, had announced his resignation from all party posts and from the membership of the SGPC.

“I have full faith in the judiciary. Therefore, I am submitting to the process of law by surrendering in the court. I have firm belief that truth will come out and justice will be done,” he had said on Friday.