Patiala, March 27
The police today arrested Punjabi University Fine Arts Department’s Head Dr Saroj Rani and technical assistant Jaspal Singh for alleged attempt of rape case registered against varsity’s Vice-Chancellor Dr Jasbir Singh Ahluwalia, by Fine Arts girl student Saru Rana.
According to sources, both were arrested on the charge of conspiracy in the case (Section 120-B). Both of them were produced before Duty Magistrate A.K. Aggarwal who remanded them in police custody for two days. They were sent to the Sadar Police Station. The Magistrate however ordered medical examination of Dr Rani.
University student Saru Rana alleged that the varsity Vice-Chancellor had attempted to rape her when she had gone to meet him in his office on January 30 regarding a complaint submitted to him earlier. She had claimed that the VC took her in his clutches and that she was able to free herself and flee his office.
According to the Deputy Superintendent of Police (Rural) Rachhpal Singh arrested Dr Rani and the technical assistant from the Fine Arts Department around noon. Police sources claimed that statutory notices had been given to both of them after their arrest warrants had been secured on March 15 but they did not take heed and did not present themselves before the police following which the arrests were made.
Meanwhile, Dr Saroj Rani in a statement to The Tribune said that she was going on indefinite fast to protest against her arrest in a false case. She claimed that she had been falsely implicated in the case in spite of the fact that she was cooperating in police investigation. She claimed she had gone to the police station on February 24 and 25 and that a police team had also visited the Fine Arts Department on March 15.
Dr Rani said she was taken from the Department of Fine Arts at 11 am when she was in the midst of a meeting of the Board of Studies of Fine Arts and brought to the Sadar Police Station. She said she did not have any suspicion that she was being arrested and had even left her six-year-old daughter at the Department in the hope that she would be back in an hour or two as promised by the police.
