Faridkot/Jalandhar, Oct 21
Almost a month after Shruti (15) was allegedly taken away from her Faridkot house, the Punjab Police today claimed to have recovered the girl from a beach area in Goa and arrested main accused Nishan Singh.

At least half-a-dozen men had barged into Shruti’s house and beat up her parents before bundling her into a car.

The Punjab Police had alerted all airports in the country following intense political pressure and the media outcry that followed the abduction. Though the police station was a stone’s throw from Shruti’s house, the police took an hour to reach there, and that too, after being prodded by a young PCS officer, an eyewitness to the incident.

In Jalandhar, Director General of Police Sumedh Singh Saini said the police team had been camping in Goa since October 17 after a tip-off about Nishan Singh.

Faridkot Senior Superintendent of Police GS Toor said besides some women police employees and two deputy superintendents of police travelled to Goa looking for Nishan Singh. “He was arrested on Sunday afternoon,” Toor said.

“Shruti is safe. We hope the police team will bring her back to Faridkot by Monday afternoon,” said the SSP. Nishan was arrested from Goa’s Panama beach.

Shruti’s parents in Faridkot, Ashwani Sachdeva and Seema, said they had no official information about their daughter. “I have lost all faith in the police as so they have floated so many theories in the last four weeks about the kidnapping of my daughter. I want to see my daughter first”, said Ashwani Sachdeva.

Congress leaders in Faridkot today alleged the state government knew about the location of the accused, but did not arrest him as he was “close to some senior Akali leaders”. “This arrest is only a face-saving exercise by the police and government. The Akalis know of a rising tide of public outrage. The protest by Congress legislators in Faridkot, too, created a flutter in ruling circles. So, the police dramatised the arrest,” said Kushaldeep Dhillon, general secretary, Punjab Congress.

Congress Legislature Party leader Sunil Jakhar criticised DGP Saini for blaming political leaders for having played with the sentiments of the people. “Will the DGP explain what his two senior subordinates — a DIG and an SSP — did when they released the photo of the minor girl and tried to make it out as an elopement case?” asked Jakhar.