Murder victim's father booked for rape

The local police on Friday registered a rape case against Amarjit Singh Sodhi, father of deceased Parampreet Kaur, whose murder in February had led to then mayor Jaspal Singh Pardhan's resignation.

The local police on Friday registered a rape case against Amarjit Singh Sodhi, father of deceased Parampreet Kaur, whose murder in February had led to then mayor Jaspal Singh Pardhan's resignation.

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Sodhi was booked under sections 376 (rape) and 342 (wrongful confinement) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) after the police got conducted the victim's medical examination.

The woman alleged that Sodhi raped her in his house on Friday on the pretext of securing a bank loan for her, the police said.

After the alleged rape, she called her relatives, who roughed up Sodhi outside his residence.Sodhi is the complainant in the Parampreet murder case, the FIR pertaining to which named Pardhan as the father-in-law of the deceased. Pardhan had to resign after the registration of the case. However, a special investigation team (SIT) led by the IG (crime) had given the clean chit to Pardhan. Subsequently, Sodhi approached the Punjab and Haryana high court, demanding a CBI probe into the murder.

In the complaint, the woman said she came into contact with Sodhi about 10 days ago. On Friday, he allegedly asked her to come to his house, where he raped her. Sources said Sodhi, in his statement to the police, claimed that it was consensual sex.

Sodhi and his family members accused Pardhan of hatching a conspiracy to frame him as he was pursuing the case against the former Akali mayor.

When contacted, Pardhan denied any link with the rape case. "Don't drag me into another controversy. I have already suffered a lot because of Sodhi's false allegation in the murder case. Because of that FIR, I lost all that I had earned after 40 years of hard work in politics," he said.