Controversial SP Salwinder Singh surrenders in Gurdaspur court

Gurdaspur : Controversial SP Salwinder Singh, who had recently been declared a proclaimed offender (PO) in a rape case, finally surrendered in a Gurdaspur court on Thursday putting to rest speculation over his whereabouts. At 12.50 pm, the beleaguered SP, escorted by an advocate, walked into the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate Mohit Bansal and declared his intention to surrender. Minutes later, City police station SHO Vishwa Nath, a one-time subordinate of the SP, who was standing outside the court room with a heavy police force, took him to the Gurdaspur central jail. He has been remanded to judicial custody till May 5.The SP was absconding ever since the Punjab and Haryana High Court rejected his bail application on September 23 last year. He surrendered in a case registered against him under Section 376 (2) IPC (A public servant taking advantage of his official position to rape a woman).The case had been registered on August 3 last year after the victim’s husband had approached the then chief minister Parkash Singh Badal through the latter’s online sangat darshan. Simultaneously, an offence under the Prevention of Corruption Act was also made out after the husband had complained that the SP was demanding money from him to hush up a particular case.The SP again found himself in trouble after some Gurdaspur-based women police employees claimed that he had allegedly sexually assaulted them. He was booked under Section 354 of the IPC on October 20 after a senior IPS officer, Gurpreet Kaur Deo, probed the allegations.Today, before he approached the CJM, the SP kept on sitting in the room meant for jail inmates, also known as a ‘Bakshi Khaana’. Inmates are made to sit here before they appear in a court.The officer had hit the headlines when he was abducted by a group of four militants on December 31, 2015 just 48 hours before the same group attacked the Pathankot Air Force station.