Chandigarh: An NRI has been booked for allegedly raping a woman from Punjab’s Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar (Nawanshahr) district after the Punjab and Haryana High Court directed Ludhiana Police to register an FIR.
The accused, identified as Jatinder Kumar, allegedly established contact with the woman through Facebook in 2019. According to the complaint, the two developed a relationship after exchanging phone numbers, and the accused allegedly promised to marry her.
The woman told police that Jatinder visited India in 2021, after which they began meeting regularly. In 2022, he allegedly took her from Nawanshahr to a rented room near the Jalandhar Bypass vegetable market in Ludhiana, where he allegedly established physical relations with her on the pretext of marriage.
According to the complaint, after returning overseas, the accused invited the woman abroad, again assuring her that they would marry. She alleged that he continued to sexually exploit her for nearly a year while they were abroad by repeatedly making the same promise.
The woman returned to India in 2023. When Jatinder Kumar also returned on November 14, 2023, she and her family allegedly asked him to fulfil his promise of marriage. However, he allegedly refused.
The complainant claimed she approached the police, but no FIR was registered. She subsequently filed a petition before the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which directed Ludhiana Police to register a case.
Following the court’s directions, Salem Tabri Police Station in Ludhiana has registered an FIR against the accused and launched an investigation.
SHO Harshveer Singh said the FIR had been registered in compliance with the High Court’s order. He added that the investigation has been entrusted to a woman police officer and that efforts are underway to arrest the accused at the earliest.
Police said the allegations are under investigation, and the accused’s version has not yet been placed on record.
