Less than six months after the Punjab and Haryana High Court directed the Patiala police to investigate an FIR registered against Sikh preacher Ranjit Singh Dhadrianwale on charges of sexual assault and murder, a three-member special investigation team (SIT) formed to look into the allegations has recommended “cancellation of the FIR”.
The FIR was lodged at the Passiana police station in Patiala on December 7, 2024, under Sections 302 (murder), 376 (rape) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC following the intervention of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
In its final report submitted last week to Patiala SSP Varun Sharma, the SIT stated that the FIR be considered for cancellation since “none of the accusations” could be established in the over 12-year-old case.
“We have submitted our final report to the Patiala SSP. I cannot comment further on the issue,” Patiala SP Swaranjit Kaur, who heads the SIT, told The Tribune. The other two members of the SIT are DSP GS Sikand and Passiana SHO Manoj.
A SIT member said they had recommended cancellation of the FIR as “there was no evidence to support the allegations” levied in it.
The Patiala police will now go into the merits of the SIT findings and may approach the court recommending the cancellation or order a reinvestigation.
A senior official attached with the investigation confirmed that the three major allegations in the FIR, which was registered on a complaint of the victim’s brother, could not be ascertained by the SIT in the over-five-month-old probe.
“The autopsy was conducted after the victim consumed poison and collapsed near the dera gate. Nowhere was it proved that she was murdered. The second major allegation of rape could not be determined as the post-mortem had later ruled out rape. The third allegation that the house of the complainant was demolished in connivance with the accused was also found to be far from true. Rather our probe revealed that the said house was already sold before the allegation,” the officer said.
After the registration of the FIR, Dhadrianwale had said the “case was very old and pertained to suicide, with nothing being found even during the post-mortem”.
“I am innocent and have full faith in the High Court and the Punjab Police,” the preacher had said in a video statement released to the media in December last year.