Capt slams Cheema on law & order claims, schools him in IPC sections for kidnapping

To rebut Cheema’s claims on the ‘kidnapping for ransom’ cases, the chief minister said as against his claim of 1,032 such cases, only 3 were actually reported in Ludhiana and all were eventually solved.

Accusing Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) of “mutilating facts” in a “desperate bid” to win the 2022 electoral battle, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh Monday slammed Leader of Opposition Harpal Singh Cheema for targeting his government over the law and order issue.

“Instead of picking up unverified data from here and there, Cheema could have approached the DGP to get the facts, which are completely removed from what he has put in his press release,” said Amarinder.
He alleged that Cheema has once again proved that the AAP’s ideology is based on “lies and fabrications”, with all the leaders of Arvind Kejriwal’s party having become “masters of deceit”.

Amarinder was responding to Cheema’s allegations in a statement a day ago that the law and order problem in the state had become “uncontrollable” and there was an atmosphere of “fear” among people.

Contrary to Cheema’s claims, only 38 cases of kidnapping for ransom have been reported in the state since the Congress government took over in March 2017, Amarinder claimed, adding that all those cases had been solved, with the victim’s release successfully secured and the culprits arrested. Even convictions have been obtained in many instances by fast tracking of criminal trials in serious cases, he said.

This, Amarinder said, was a far cry from the 7,138 incidents cited by Cheema, “who evidently cannot differentiate between kidnapping for ransom and other cases of abduction or kidnapping”. “But then, given your total lack of experience of governance or administration or policing, this does not come as a surprise,” the CM said.

“As the Home Minister of the state,” Amarinder said he would “not mind giving a few quick tips to the LoP to save him similar embarrassment over his total ignorance” in the future. The fact is that there is a whole set of criminal cases that deal with kidnapping, as registered under sections 363, 364, 364 A, 365 and 366 of the IPC. These relate to kidnapping (363), abduction (364), kidnapping for ransom (364 A) etc, kidnapping, abducting or inducing woman to compel her marriage, etc.(366), procuration of minor girl (366 A), the CM went on to explain.

Of the 7,138 incidents cited by Cheema, 87% pertained to elopement and over 10% to clashes between two parties, which usually involve registration of kidnapping offences as people either go missing on their own or elope of their own free will because they are in consensual relationships as major or minor girls, said the CM. In many such cases, at the time of the filing of the FIRs, the family is initially not even aware of the cause of their disappearance and therefore files a report of kidnapping or abduction, which Cheema neither knows nor has bothered to find out, he added.

To rebut Cheema’s claims on the ‘kidnapping for ransom’ cases, the chief minister said as against his claim of 1,032 such cases, only 3 were actually reported in Ludhiana and all were eventually solved.

Similarly, in Amritsar Comissionerate and district, only two cases of ‘kidnapping for ransom’ were reported, while in Jalandhar district, not a single such case was registered, as against the 619 claimed by the AAP leader, he added.

In Mohali, out of the 576 FIRs registered under various kidnapping and abduction sections, only two involved kidnapping for ransom. Both these cases were traced and challans filed in court. The remaining cases pertained to elopement of minor girls, said the CM. As for Patiala district, only two of the 470 kidnapping cases registered were related to ransom, he added.

The law and order situation in Punjab is currently among the best in the country, said Amarinder. In fact, he pointed out, as per the India Today – State of States Report, 2020, Punjab was ranked as No. 1 state in the country for best performance in law & order. The ranking of Punjab’s law & order has improved year on year from rank 5 (2018) to rank 2 (2019) to rank 1 (2020), since his government took over, he added.

On the LoP’s allegation of nexus between the ruling party leaders, administrative and police officials with criminals in Punjab, Amarinder said such collusions only take place in AAP, whose national convenor was seen openly hobnobbing with people of militant and criminal background during the run-up to the 2017 Assembly elections.

Thanks to the free hand they have, the Punjab Police has successfully restored the peace of the state, where people today feel safe and secure, with gangsters, terrorists, drug dealers etc either neutralized or forced to flee, said the CM.

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