IANS/Chandigarh

Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal yesterday finally admitted that the bus from which a teenage girl was thrown out, leading to her death, was owned by his company.
Sukhbir had remained silent on the bus ownership issue for two days after the incident.
According to reports, the victim’s family was refusing to cremate her body till action was taken on the matter.
Expressing his “deepest sorrow and outrage” over the Moga bus tragedy, in which 13-year old Arshdeep was killed after being pushed out of the speeding vehicle by her molesters, Sukhbir said: “I am with the grieving family in their hour of extreme sorrow and want to assure them that those responsible for bringing this tragedy upon them would be given exemplary punishment under the law of the land.”
The victim’s mother, Shinder Kaur, 36, who was also pushed out of the bus, was admitted to a government hospital with serious injuries.
In a statement here, Sukhbir, who also holds the home portfolio, said: “I am personally and deeply anguished over the incident, more so because of the bus in which it happened.”
Referring to his ownership of the company, he said: “The fact only adds to our responsibility. It is absurd to even think that the incident of such brutality and brazenness to go unpunished because of the company’s ownership.”
Sukhbir and his wife and Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal own the Orbit Aviation Company to which the bus belonged.
The opposition Congress had on Thursday demanded that a case be registered against Sukhbir and his family members who were owners of the company.
The incident occurred on Wednesday evening near Moga town, 180km from here.
Shinder Kaur told police that they had complained about the molestation to the bus driver but he mocked them and continued driving the vehicle. She said none of the passengers in the bus came to their rescue. The mother alleged that she and her daughter were then pushed out of the moving bus by the molesters.
The family of three, including a 14-year-old boy, had boarded the bus at Moga town for Baghapurana town, which is 20km away, on Wednesday evening. The mother and daughter were soon targeted by the molesters.
Reacting to the incident, which has left the Punjab government, the ruling Akali Dal and the Badal family embarrassed, the Punjab government yesterday set up a high-level committee headed by Chief Secretary Sarvesh Kaushal to suggest ways to ensure safety and security of commuters in public transport.
Sukhbir, whose father, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had on Thursday disowned any association with the Orbit Aviation Company, yesterday blamed the opposition for playing politics over the death of the girl.
“I am deeply pained by the utterly irresponsible and inhuman statements emerging from some Congress leaders. Instead of helping in assuaging the feelings of the affected family, opposition leaders have been gleefully latching on to it as an opportunity to buy their lost political relevance in Punjab,” he said.
The chief minister said he would allow police to complete its investigation into the matter independently.

Woman allegedly gang-raped in Moga
A woman in Punjab’s Moga district has alleged that she was gang-raped by her friend’s husband and his friends, police said yesterday. The woman’s claim came just hours after the horror story of a girl being killed after being pushed out of a moving bus by her molesters. The victim, 23, claimed that she was gang-raped by her friend’s husband and others on the night of April 29 at a house in Marhi Mustafa village near Moga. Police have registered a case of rape against her friend’s husband and others following the complaint. No arrest has been made so far. The victim claimed that she had gone to meet her friend at the latter’s house along with her boyfriend. They decided to stay there overnight. The friend’s husband came home drunk late at night with seven friends. They allegedly thrashed her boyfriend before assaulting her. She claimed she was only allowed to leave the room the next day.