Punjab: Declared ‘wanted’ in rape case, former MLA Simarjeet Bains claims ‘political vendetta’ on Facebook

Bains (52), founder-cum-president of his Lok Insaaf Party (LIP) and two-time MLA from Atam Nagar, was booked in an alleged rape case filed by a 44-year-old woman last year. The woman alleged that the legislator raped her multiple times in 2020 after she had approached him for help in a property dispute case.

Meanwhile, a poster declaring Bains as a proclaimed offender was posted outside his residence by the complainant woman herself, her advocate Harish Rai Dhanda said. The police put up these posters at many prominent public places across Ludhiana Tuesday.

On April 12, the trial court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Harsimranjit Kaur declared Bains and the other accused as ‘proclaimed offenders’ after the police failed to arrest them and produce them in the court. Another FIR under section 174-A (non-appearance in response to a proclamation) of the IPC was also registered against them in the order.

“The accused did not appear before the court even after the period of 30 days from the date of proclamation had lapsed. Therefore the court has declared all accused — Simarjeet Bains, Karamjit Bains, Paramjit Bains, Sukhchain Singh, Pardeep Kumar, Baljinder Kaur and Jasbir Kaur — as proclaimed offenders,” said Dhanda.

The FIR was registered against Bains, his brothers — Karamjit Singh and Paramjit Singh – and four others under sections 376 (rape), 354 (assault or criminal force on woman with an intent to outrage her modesty), 354-A (sexual harassment), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 120-B (conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), at division number 6 police station on July 10, 2021.

Even as the police have failed to arrest the former MLA, he has been active in the city, attending public functions and posting regularly on social media.