Toll plaza staffer held for Ludhiana woman’s rape

Karnal, February 19

The police on Wednesday arrested an employee of the Bastara toll plaza identified as Sukhvinder alias Sonu.

He had been absconding after an alleged abduction and rape at knifepoint of a Ludhiana-based 21-year-old woman under a flyover on National Highway-44 near Bastara toll plaza on the intervening night of Sunday and Monday. The police have already arrested the main accused Meghraj, a roadside vendor from Staundi village.

As per the police, Sonu has assisted the main accused in the abduction and he was posted at the toll plaza. “We have arrested Sukhwinder alias Sonu from Saudapur village in Panipat. He was produced in court from where he was sent to judicial custody,” Madhuban SHO Tarshem Singh.

The woman had alleged that she was abducted by two men at knifepoint when she went to use the washroom near Bastara toll plaza on NH-44. She was taken under a flyover where one of them raped her.

She told the police she and her husband were returning to Ludhiana from Panipat by bus and got off at the toll plaza to meet a relative who had to hand them Rs 20,000. Her husband was having tea at a dhaba near the toll plaza and she went to use the washroom when the incident took place. — TNS