Moga Orbit molestation-death case: ‘Mother, sister molested and pushed out of bus’

Akashdeep was travelling with his mother Shinder Kaur and sister Arshdeep Kaur on the Orbit bus, which is co-owned by deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal. Arshdeep Kaur died after she was allegedly pushed out of the bus.

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Speaking to The Indian Express, a source who was present during the hearing confirmed that Akashdeep refused to identify the four accused who were also present there.

“He confirmed that accused misbehaved with both but when asked to identify them, he said he did not know. He refused to identify four of them and said he cannot identify them,” said the source.

Another private witness Ranjit Singh, who was working as ‘adda incharge’ hired by private bus operators on the day of incident, also turned hostile on Friday. It was on his statement that police had verified names and addresses of four accused but today he denied knowing them. He even said in the court that he left this job of ‘adda incharge’ in 2012. The four accused also moved bail today which is scheduled for hearing on April 29.

Shinder Kaur, prime witness in the case, turned hostile on February 9 and said she ‘did not remember a single detail’ of what happened that day.

She also refused to identify the four accused, adding that there was ‘no molestation with either two of them’ and that she ‘does not remember if they were pushed off the bus.’

On December 11, father of the victim Sukhdev Singh had turned hostile in a similar way and claimed he was not aware of what happened. In his statement to police, he had said his wife Shinder Kaur had told him that bus driver and other staff first molested and misbehaved with her daughter and then pushed both of them out of the bus.

The bus driver, Ranjit Singh, conductor Sukhwinder Singh, helper Gurdeep Singh, and the fourth accused Amarjeet Singh are behind the bars in this case.