About a boy,and the man about town

Gurmohan has alleged that Ranjit’s personal guards hit him with the butts of their pistols and pointed their weapons at him.

Born with the proverbial silver spoon in his mouth,Ranjit is the only child of the two high-profile and powerful Punjab bureaucrats. His mother Rupen Deol Bajaj had hit the national headlines for taking on “supercop” and then Punjab director general of police K P S Gill,charging him with “outraging her modesty” at a private party in 1988 in Chandigarh. While father B R Bajaj was the president of the Punjab IAS Officers’ Association when he was still serving,Rupen Deol is currently posted as State Information Commissioner after retirement. Not only that,both Ranjit’s maternal uncle and aunt are senior IPS officers serving in the Delhi Police.

The family also has ancestral property,with maternal grandfather I S Deol setting up the sprawling Minerva Academy,known in the region for training aspirants for defence services,which is now managed by Ranjit.

B R Bajaj denies his son is on the run,claiming that Ranjit is in Mumbai “for an audition with the National Geographic channel” and would return in three-four days. Asked about the string of cases against him,Bajaj put the phone down,saying: “I am sitting with some people and can’t talk any more on this.”

Even as he had frequent run-ins with the law and even as all those cases fell through — the official reason being police failure to produce substantial evidence — Ranjit tried his hands from everything from cricket management to MTV. He is also a prominent and regular face in parties at Chandigarh discotheques.

Engaged by a leading multinational company as their liaison person in Chandigarh in the late ’90s,he has rubbed shoulders the past one and a half decade with top members of the Indian cricket team. He even became the liaison officer of an IPL cricket team and acted as a liaison officer with the Pakistani team during their series in India in 2007.

In 2006,he started a private cricket coaching academy at the region’s leading educational institution,DAV College,Chandigarh (Kapil Dev’s alma mater),which was inaugurated by then Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh. However,the academy shut down soon after.

In mid-2007,Ranjit got associated with Chandigarh’s first leading nightclub,Score. Courtesy his cricket links,he got fellow Chandigarh resident Yuvraj Singh to inaugurate the club. However,soon Ranjit fell out with Score as well. Ranjit next became part of the popular MTV road show MTV Roadies,and managed to last till the very end of the contest.

A regular on Facebook,Ranjit has put up a picture of him with Bollywood star Hrithik Roshan on his profile. Interestingly,the two women who have testified for him in the alleged Gurmohan assault case are seen with him in numerous photos posted on the account.

[Ranjit’s case history

September 26,1996: The first case lodged against Ranjit Bajaj,with him and two friends accused of assaulting a head constable of Chandigarh Police,Daya Ram. The case went on for 13 years,with Ranjit being acquitted on November 27,2009,by a lower court.

May 5,2000: A police team arrested a friend of Ranjit’s and recovered a pistol,live cartridges and two swords from the Maruti car he was driving at a check-post. The car was registered in Rupen Deol Bajaj’s name. The arms licence had B R Bajaj’s name on it and carried Ranjit’s photograph.

May 17,2000: The same month Ranjit was accused of abducting Sunny Garg,an industrialist’s son. Ranjit allegedly took Sunny with him to his house in Sector 16 and assaulted him with iron rods. The complaint read that

Ranjit and his friends snatched cash,cellphone and a cheque book from Garg and demanded Rs 20 lakh for his release. The FIR was later quashed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

May 21,2000: Just four days later,Ranjit and his friend Amit Sharma were intercepted by a Chandigarh Police patrolling party after a tip-off that two youngsters were loitering in the area under suspicious circumstances. While Sharma was held,Ranjit refused to step out of the car and sped away. Despite firing in the air,police were unable to get Ranjit to stop till he eventually banged into a motorcycle on which two police officers were chasing him. Both the policemen were injured. Ranjit was booked on charges of cheating,forgery,assaulting and restricting a public servant from performing official duty. He was arrested after four days. However,on January 31,2005,Ranjit and Sharma were acquitted in the case. Fourteen Chandigarh Police personnel deposed as witnesses but still the prosecution’s case fell flat.

May 5,2001: In a quarrel,Ranjit and his friend Naresh allegedly beat up a group of six youths,led by Jagatinder Pal Singh alias Bagga. The next month Bagga’s car was set on fire,and he blamed Ranjit. That case also stands quashed.

November 9,2002: A case of car theft was slapped against Ranjit,for allegedly stealing a Maruti to help his friend Maninder with spare parts for his car. While Maninder and Naresh Kumar,both local residents and Ranjit’s alleged accomplices were convicted in the case in July 2008,Ranjit was acquitted as early as February 4,2004.

October 17,2008: A Chandigarh Police report on nexus between police and drug peddlers named Ranjit. Six police officers too figured in the report and remained under suspension for many months. Ranjit said he was not a drug addict but only helped expose a drug peddler.

August 28,2009: The Chandigarh Police booked Ranjit and arrested his three private security guards on charges of assaulting and misbehaving with policemen outside a discotheque in Sector 26 in the wee hours. Ranjit claimed that far from assaulting anyone,he was actually trying to stop people from fighting.

January 30,2010: The Panchkula Police booked Ranjit in an attempt to murder case after he and his security guards got into a scuffle with Gurmohan Singh Bedi,son of M M S Bedi,a judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court,allegedly assaulting him with pistol butts and brandishing weapons at him. The incident occurred in the parking lot of North Park,Panchkula,where a party of the St John’s Old Boys Association was going on.