CHANDIGARH: The case of “abduction” of a girl, Ms. Suman Bala, from the residence of an advocate, ‘Atul Lakhanpal by the Ludhiana police, took a curious tum last week, when the girl produced in the court urged that she be saved from her abductors. She was produced in the court of Justice V.K.Jhanjiby the Ludhiana police and her “husband” Rajinder Kumar.
The girl reverted to her earlier statement made during the proceedings that she was married to Rajinder Kumar and that she had left the house of Lakhanpal at her own will. She stated that the earlier statements had been made under threat from the police. , The court had directed the advocate to keep the girl and her parents “at his own residence, following a legged attempt by Ludhiana policemen to kidnap her from the High Court complex. The girl was later kidnapped from the residence of Lakhanpal, last week. Lakhanpal had lodged a complaint with the local police here that the girl had disappeared from his residence and that she had been kidnapped by the police.
Meanwhile, the judge, passed orders for the girl to be sent to Nan. Nike tan for seven days to revive her state of mind, before the court took up the case on Noy.25, The girl was in a state of shock.
Mrs, Raj Rani, the girl’s mother, had in October filed a habeas corpus petition alleging that her daughter had been taken into illegal custody by the police, a ‘warrant officer had recovered the girl. The court had said was among the suspected policemen who had failed to present themselves before the court on a previous date of hearing.
‘The policemen had also made an attempt to kidnap other members ‘of Suman Bala’s family, including her father Brij Lal and his younger daughter from the High Court premises where they had ‘come to appear as witnesses.
Ms., Bala said that she had been raped by five persons including Rajinder Kumar before she was recovered by the warrant officer.
Meanwhile, strike by lawyers of Punjab and Haryana High Court entered second day as reports from. Various districts of Punjab about strike in the district courts poured in.
The strike had been sparked off by an alleged threat issued to the Secretary of the Bar Association by the Officer on Special Duty, D. S, and Saroya, attached to the Punjab Chief Minister.
Meanwhile, the advocates at Fatchgarh Sahib observed strike to protest against the misbehavior of an ETO with a senior lawyer.
Article extracted from this publication >> November 25, 1994
