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PTC Miss Punjaban case: Inappropriate clauses found in contestants’ contracts, police tell HC
The affidavit filed by Mohali deputy superintendent of police (headquarters) said Rabinder Narayan, the managing director of PTC, is solely responsible for all the “illegal activities”
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Punjab Police have told the Punjab and Haryana high court that it found “inappropriate and illegal” clauses in the contracts of PTC’s ‘Miss Punjaban’ beauty pageant contestants during the investigation into an FIR registered on a complaint of sexual harassment.
The affidavit filed by Mohali deputy superintendent of police (headquarters) Manvir Singh Bajwa opposing the bail pleas said, “Lots of inappropriate clauses through which participants were bound not to raise any objection, dispute/claim in any manner, have been found in their contracts for the contest. The said clauses show the modus operandi and ill intention.”
The response has been submitted to the bail pleas of Rabinder Narayan, the managing director of PTC, and Nancy Ghuman, director, Miss Punjaban 2022-23, which is organised by PTC. It was on April 6 that the Mohali police had arrested Narayan in an FIR registered under charges of sexual harassment, using criminal force on any woman with intention of disrobing her to be naked, wrongful restraint, and wrongful confinement.
The contestant had lodged a complaint with the police on March 17, alleging that the accused were involved in a prostitution racket and she was detained for many days without her consent.
The affidavit said Narayan being head of PTC channel is solely responsible for all the “illegal activities”.
The police further claimed that whereas there were 24 contestants, as many as 26 agreements have been found. As per the complainant’s statement, the entire team was involved in illegal activities and was working on his instructions. Co-accused Niharika and Laxman were working under him and there were “very serious” allegations against them, the police said, demanding that he be not released on bail as he might tamper with the evidence.
In the case of Ghuman, the police claimed that as per the woman’s statement, she was the “mastermind of illegal activities”. Any agreement between the channel and Ghuman was yet to be recovered, the police said, further adding that as per the complainant, in order to blackmail the women, their obscene pictures were taken, which were yet to be recovered.
Hence, she be not given protection from arrest, the police said. About Bhupinderjeet Singh, the third petitioner and accused in this case, the police said that he and Ghuman got divorced in 2015, but were still residing and working together for the contest. “Both are masterminds of this ill trade,” the police claimed.
The bail pleas of the trio will be taken up for hearing on May 19.
