E-Paper
After acquittal in rape case, Sucha Singh Langah urges Akal Takht to revoke excommunication
Excommunication means expulsion from the socio-religious order of the Sikhs as a larger community.The five head priests led by the Akal Takht jathedar pronounce such an order.
Almost three weeks after a Gurdaspur court acquitted former SAD minister and SGPC member Sucha Singh Langah of a rape case that a woman head constable had filed against him, Langah has made a written request to the Akal Takht to revoke his excommunication.
The Akal Takht is the highest temporal seat of Sikhism. Excommunication means expulsion from the socio-religious order of the Sikhs as a larger community. The five head priests led by the Akal Takht jathedar pronounce such an order.
Langah was excommunicated in October 2017 after a video, allegedly showing him in a compromising position with the woman, went viral before the Gurdaspur Lok Sabha by-poll. He was found guilty of misconduct and violation of the Sikh tenets.
The woman constable had lodged a complaint and handed over a video clip to police in September last year. To strengthen her case, she got her confessional statement recorded under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) before the judge.
On his part, Langah had alleged political vendetta and maintained that he had been falsely implicated.
The police had booked the SAD leader under sections 376 (rape), 384 (extortion), 420 (cheating) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code.
Later, the prosecution case fell flat as the complainant turned hostile during a hearing in February this year. She reportedly told the judge that she did not know Langah and was never raped by him. She also maintained ‘that she had filed the complaint under pressure’.
“We have received a letter from him and it will be discussed in the meeting of Panj Singh Sahiban (the highest presidium of Sikh clergymen) at the Takht,” said Satinderpal Singh, personal assistant to Giani Gurbachan Singh, the jathedar of the Akal Takht. He refused to disclose anything related to Langah’s plea. Sources said the former Akali minister has attached a copy of the court’s acquittal order with his plea to the Akal Takht. However, it remains to be seen if the Sikh clergy considers the court order in its decision.
