Samana, January 1
During the course of the investigations in the Badshahpur gangrape and suicide case, the police today rounded up a distant cousin of the gangrape victim Daljit (name changed), who also got admitted in the hospital after allegedly consuming poison the same night the rape victim was admitted to the hospital after she had consumed poison. The victim later died.

Further, the district police has shifted the FIR pertaining to suicide case from Ghagga police station to Samana, raising questions as to why the FIR was earlier registered at Ghagga police station, when the incident (suicide) took place at Samana.

Highly placed sources in the police department confirmed that Manpreet Singh was picked up by a police team from outside Punjab and brought to Patiala in the afternoon. The crime branch officers questioned him for almost five hours.

Though the cops said that these developments had nothing to do with the “gangrape charges of the victim and that case (gangrape) is being investigated differently”, the sources said that the suicide angle was being probed, adding there are some loopholes in the statement of the complainant and the recent developments.

Patiala IG Paramjit Singh Gill confirmed that though Manpreet was brought for questioning, he was not a suspect at this point of time. “We are just trying to form the sequence that led the victim to suicide and would not arrest anyone till there is concrete proof,” Gill said.

He refused to share more details. “Manpreet has not been arrested, but his role is under the scanner as the day the gangrape victim got admitted after she consumed poison, the hospital records show that Manpreet was also admitted with some similar symptoms on the same night”, the sources said.

“As of now, Manpreet is not a suspect or accused. He was admitted to the hospital six hours after Daljit was brought to hospital”, said top police officials.