As many as 13 people, including a self-styled ‘pastor’, have been booked for the alleged kidnapping and gang rape of a 22-year-old woman in Punjab’s Dera Baba Nanak, the police said on Tuesday.
An FIR has been registered under sections 70 (gang rape), 127(4) (wrongful confinement), and 61(2) (criminal conspiracy) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita based on the woman’s complaint, officials said. Among the accused are Manjit Singh, identified as a ‘pastor’, and Sawar Masih, Happy, Kajal, and Rajinder, along with two unidentified persons.
Confirming the development, Dera Baba Nanak Station House Officer (SHO) Satpal Singh said, “A case has been registered against 13 people, including a ‘pastor’. Investigations are underway.”
According to the woman, who worked at a rice mill near Fatehgarh Churian Road, Sawar Masih, a resident of her village, took her social media ID and started following her online. In January, Masih and his relative allegedly arrived at the mill, threatened her with a sharp weapon, and forcibly took her away on a scooter.
She claimed she was taken to an undisclosed location, where she was raped, beaten, and kept confined for three months. She further alleged that Manjit Singh later arrived, forced her to drink some liquid, and declared that she had been converted to Christianity. She was also compelled to sign documents stating she was in a live-in relationship with one of the accused.
The woman managed to escape last week when the accused forgot to lock the room where she was being held.
The development comes on the heels of a Mohali court sentencing self-styled Christian preacher Bajinder Singh to life in prison in a 2018 rape case on April 1.
Earlier this month, self-styled pastor Jashan Gill, who had been on the run for two years after being accused of raping a 22-year-old woman, surrendered before a court in Gurdaspur district.
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