Former SAD minister and SGPC member Sucha Singh Langah was acquitted by a local court here on Monday in a rape case filed against him by a Punjab Police employee.
Langah was present in the court of Prem Kumar, Additional Sessions Judge, when the judgement was pronounced. He was mobbed by scores of his supporters when he came out around 5pm.
Langah was represented by defence counsels Santokh Singh Basra and Karanjit Singh.
"The truth has finally emerged. I had all along been maintaining that the case which was registered against me was out of political vendetta," he said.
The victim, an employee of the vigilance department, had filed a complaint with the then SSP Harcharan Singh Bhullar on September 28 last year claiming that she was repeatedly raped by the Akali leader. As evidence, she also handed over a video clip to the SSP.
To strengthen her case, she got her confessional statement recorded under Section 164 CrPC in front of the judge.
The video later went viral during the Gurdaspur by-polls severely denting the image of the SAD-BJP combine.
After a preliminary inquiry was conducted by then DSP (city) A.D. Singh, the police booked the SAD leader on September 29 at the Gurdaspur (city) police station under various sections of the IPC, including 376 (rape), 384 (extortion), 420 (cheating) and 506 (criminal intimidation).
Langah, who was removed as Gurdaspur district SAD president soon after the case was registered, now stands exonerated of all charges.
The prosecution produced 23 witnesses in the court while the defence did not produce even a single witness.
Legal experts say the prosecution case fell flat the moment the woman retracted her statement on February 28 this year. She reportedly told the judge that she was not the same woman seen in the video seen in a compromising position with Langah.
She also added "that she did not know the SAD leader and had heard about him only in newspapers". She also maintained that "that whatever she had done was under pressure".
