Punjab Min kicks up row, says Moga victim's death God's will

Moga, May 2: Punjab Education Minister Surjit Singh Rakhra on Saturday triggered a controversy by making an insensitive comment that the death of the teenage girl, who was molested and thrown off a bus belonging to the ruling Badal family, was God's will.

'Nobody can stop accidents. Whatever happens does so by God's will. We can always meet with an accident. We will do more for the people. What has happened is unfortunate. You cannot go against nature's will," he said.

Rejecting government compensation and demanding action against the owners of the vehicle, family members of the girl have refused to perform her last rites.

"There is no headway on this issue (on the cremation)," Moga SSP Jatinder Singh Khehra said. The body of girl has been kept in a mortuary at Singhawala village here.

All attempts by the state authorities to persuade the bereaved family to cremate her proved futile after they rejected a compensation of Rs 20 lakh, a government job for her mother, her free treatment and holding trial of the case in a fast track court.

Family members of the girl have refused to perform her last rites

The family was insisting that the owners of the bus, Orbit Aviation, be booked in connection with the offence and its road permits be cancelled, a demand vociferously supported by AAP.

"I want justice. I want justice for my daughter. FIR should be registered against those whom the bus belonged to," victim's father had said on Friday. When he was asked whether he wanted registration of FIR against Sukhbir Badal, he had said, "FIR can be lodged against him (Sukhbir) after all he is a human being."

"Is there nobody in the world who can lodge FIR against him (Sukhbir)," he had questioned yesterday. The 13-year-old victim and her mother were thrown off the moving bus by a group of men, including the conductor, after they resisted molestation attempts on Thursday.

PTI