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A day after, CISF constable booked for assaulting BJP MP Kangana Ranaut
The constable was immediately suspended after the incident on Thursday. Her husband is also posted with CISF in Jammu and the couple have two children.
Mohali police on Friday booked the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) woman constable for allegedly slapping and abusing newly elected Bharatiya Janata Party (MP) Kangana Ranaut.
The police have registered a case under Sections 323 (Punishment for voluntarily causing hurt) and 341 (Whoever wrongfully restrains any person) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) against Kulwinder Kaur following the complaint of CISF. Both are bailable sections and the accused is yet to be arrested.
The constable was immediately suspended after the incident on Thursday. Kaur’s husband is also posted with CISF in Jammu and the couple have two children.
While officials did not comment on the motive of the alleged assault, Ranaut appeared to link it to “extremism and terrorism” in Punjab although a video of the suspect appeared to suggest she lashed out over the Mandi MP-elect’s stand on the farmers’ protest.
“I was hit on the face, abused. I am safe but concerned about terrorism in Punjab,” Ranaut said in a video uploaded to her social media handle on X at 6.14 pm with the caption “Shocking rise in terror and violence in Punjab.”
The incident occurred around 3 pm at the security checkpoint ahead of Ranaut’s flight.
The BJP MP, in her video, alleged that the constable approached her from the side as she was waiting in the security check area, hit her and began hurling abuses at her, seemingly without any provocation. When Ranaut asked for the reason for her behaviour, Kaur allegedly told Ranaut that she was a supporter of the farmers’ protests.
“I am safe. I am perfectly fine. There was an incident at the Chandigarh airport during the security check. As I was leaving after completing the security checking process, a woman CISF officer came from the side and hit me on the face. She began hurling abuses. When I asked her why she was doing this, she said she is a supporter of the farmers’ protest. I am safe but my question is how we end growing extremism and terrorism in Punjab,” Ranaut said in the video.
Airport authorities, on condition of anonymity, confirmed that Kaur was unhappy with the actor-turned-politician’s stand on the farmers’ protest when she said that the agitators were people paid to demonstrate.
Ranaut’s flight, Vistara’s UK707 to New Delhi at 3.30 pm, was delayed as a result of the incident, eventually departing at 4.10 pm.
Several videos from the aftermath of the incident were being widely shared on social media. In one video, Kaur can be heard defending herself to bystanders, questioning the kind of statements Ranaut made during the farmers’ protest.
“She said that women had taken ₹100 to sit at the protest. Did she sit there? My mother was among the women protesters in the sit-in when she gave that statement,” Kaur is heard saying in the video. HT could not independently verify the authenticity of the clip. Kaur hails from Sultanpur Lodhi in Kapurthala district and is sister of farmer leader Sher Singh Malhiwal.
While farmers have come in support of the accused, many politicians including former Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar and former Himachal Pradesh CM Jai Ram Thakur condemned the incident.
