The Punjab government led by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) on Monday to probe allegations of sexual misconduct against minister Lal Chand Kataruchak. The SIT will be headed by DIG Narendra Bhargava and also comprises of two SSPs.
The matter came to light after Congress leader Sukhpal Singh Khaira met Punjab Governor Banwarilal Purohit last week and handed over to him videos containing "highly objectionable content" of Kataruchak. The Governor then forwarded the forensic report of the video to CM Mann. According to the report, the video was not morphed, PTI reported.
Kataruchak, 52, is an MLA from Bhoa in Pathankot and is the Punjab food and civil supplies minister.
The National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) has issued a notice to the Punjab government after the victim sent a letter accusing the minister of threatening him and his family, PTI reported.
Quoting the letter, the NCSC said the minister had allegedly approached the victim "by sending him a friend request on Facebook in 2013-14 and when he accepted it, Kataruchak allegedly started making advances".
"Since he was an influential person, he had promised me a government job due to which I remained mum. I was too young at that time to understand anything. But, his sexual excesses continued till 2021. However, he met me for the last time on Diwali in 2021 and he neither provided me with a job nor he met me after that," the victim claimed.
"I am now on the run and submitting the complaint in Delhi as the minister is threatening to harm me or my family," he further alleged.
The issues has led to huge row in Punjab, with BJP demanding the minister's resignation.
BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla, speaking at a press conference, demanded an impartial probe into the incident while saying that Kataruchak was a "heavyweight" minister in the Punjab government and had "a very close relation" with CM Mann and his Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal.
"This is a terrifying story of sexual exploitation, sexual predatory behaviour, sexual grooming, debauchery and most of all, moral turpitude and moral degradation to the lowest levels," PTI quoted Poonawalla as saying.