Sexual harassment case Court frames charges against ex-Haryana minister

    Chandigarh, Jul 29 (PTI) A court here on Monday framed charges against former Haryana minister and BJP leader Sandeep Singh in an alleged sexual harassment case registered on the complaint of a junior woman coach.
    The court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Rahul Garg also dismissed the discharge application filed by Singh, a former Indian hockey captain, according to the complainant's counsel Deepanshu Bansal.
    The charges have been framed against Singh under Indian Penal Code sections 354 (assault or use of criminal force against a woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 354A (sexual harassment), 354B (assault or criminal force with intent to disrobe), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of woman), he said.
    The court also dismissed the complainant's plea to add section 376 (rape) in the case, Bansal said and added that the court has fixed August 17 as the next date of hearing.
    The case stems from allegations of sexual assault made by a junior athletic coach from Haryana against the BJP leader.
    The complainant had alleged that the former minister had indulged in sexual misconduct at his residence-cum-camp office on July 1, 2022.
    Singh, however, had dubbed her allegations as "baseless" and had said that he had been falsely implicated in the case.
    He was booked after the woman's complaint was registered on December 31, 2022, at the Sector-26 police station here. Singh, a first-time MLA, was the minister when the complaint was filed against him.
    After the case was registered, Singh gave up the sports portfolio and had then said he took the step on moral grounds.
    But he remained the minister of state for printing and stationery till Manohar Lal Khattar was replaced as chief minister by Nayab Singh Saini in March this year.
    Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda had taken on the then Khattar government, demanding Singh's resignation.
    However, Khattar had rejected the demand and had said levelling allegations alone does not make anyone guilty.
    The complainant last year had even claimed that she was being "pressurised" to withdraw her complaint while stating that the accused continued to remain a minister.
    In August last year, the woman coach was suspended from services over alleged violation of conduct rules.
    Singh, a Sikh face, had won from the Pehowa assembly constituency in the 2019 Haryana assembly polls.
    The prolific hockey drag-flicker, nicknamed as "Flicker Singh", hails from Shahabad in Kurukshetra. He was paralysed and was on a wheelchair for two years after accidentally being hit by a bullet in 2006.
    But he did not give up and ace drag flicker later made a strong comeback to the national hockey team.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)