By IANS,
Chandigarh : Punjab Police have booked a senior police officer on charges of abetment of suicide of a 23-year-old woman, police officials said Tuesday.
The case has been registered over a month after the victim leapt to her death from the sixth-floor flat of the police officer in Zirakpur town, 15 km from here.
Superintendent of Police Mohal Lal, 50, has been booked by the police for abetment to suicide of the victim, Loveleen, the daughter of a Punjab Police head constable who worked as Mohan Lal’s subordinate.
With investigations in progress, police officials said that more serious charges of rape, abduction, destruction of evidence and illegal confinement could be added in the case against Mohan Lal.
“Investigation in this case is in progress. We have booked the officer for abetment to suicide. More sections are likely to be added in this case. The post-mortem has confirmed that the victim was sexually exploited,” Zirakpur station house officer (SHO) Tarlochan Singh told IANS.
The police had initially tried to cover up the incident and registered the case only after a complaint by woman’s father led to an inquiry into the incident by a three-member police team.
The woman allegedly committed suicide May 17 by jumping from the sixth-floor flat of Mohan Lal at Rishi Apartments in Zirakpur town in Punjab, near here.
The young woman’s father alleged that Mohan Lal exploited her by promising to marry her and getting her a police job.
Police sources said that the Zirakpur police were initially under pressure to hush up the matter.
While Mohan Lal allegedly vanished from the building and did not even report the incident to the police, the woman was quickly taken to a government hospital here, where doctors declared her dead.