MOGA: A 13-year-old girl died and her mother suffered serious injuries on Wednesday evening when the two jump off a moving bus in Punjab’s Moga district to avoid being sexually assaulted by the conductor’s assistant.
According to TV reports, police have arrested two accused in connection with the case.
The bus belongs to Orbit Aviation which is owned by Punjab chief minister Sukhbir Badal. Sources said the bus has been leased to another company and police officials were probing all documents.
The 35-year-old woman, wife of a marginal farmer, was travelling to meet her relatives at a nearby village with her daughter and 14-year-old son. Police officials said that when the bus reached a toll plaza about 10 km from Moga city, the assistant bus conductor started sexually assaulting the woman in a largely empty bus with very few passengers.
The woman complained to the conductor who allegedly sided with his assistant instead of helping the woman. The woman then approached the driver and asked him to stop the bus so that she could get down with her two children but he too did not listen to her and kept driving.
The woman then jumped off the moving bus with her daughter leaving both of them badly injured. The son was left behind in the bus. The bus driver, conductor and his assistant stopped the bus and fled from the scene.
Passers-by took the two to the Moga civil hospital. The daughter died later. By late evening, family members of the woman had also reached the hospital. Emergency medical officer Mukesh Kumar said that the woman was out of danger.
Moga senior superintendent of police Jatinder Singh Khaira said “The bus is in the possession of police. The woman is not in a position to record her statement. The moment she records her statement, the severest action will be taken. We are in the process of registering an FIR.”
Punjab’s Badals admit bus run by their company
The bus from which a 13-year-old girl and her mother were thrown out when they resisted molestation leading to the girl’s death belonged to Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal.
“Yes, unfortunately, the bus belongs to us, but I have never gone to this company’s office,” Badal told reporters in Chandigarh, adding, “I will talk to (Deputy Chief Minister and Badal’s son) Sukhbir about it.”