Punjabi singer booked for raping minor girl

BATHINDA: Bathinda police have booked noted Punjabi singer Surinder ‘Shinda Shounki’ for raping a minor girl. The survivor is the niece of a woman artiste working with Shounki.

Shounki gained prominence after pairing up with noted singer Miss Pooja. Though Shounki had many songs to his credit, his duet with Miss Pooja ‘Paani ho gaye dhoonge jhona launa chhad dena’ was well appreciated by the audience. The song is about the crisis of depleting water table in Punjab and shows misery of farmers transplanting paddy.

According to the complaint filed by the artiste, Shounki on Wednesday took her 15-year-old niece with him saying he would leave her at the school. She alleged that Shounki took the girl to some undisclosed place where he raped her. Afterwards, he allegedly left the girl near thermal plant lakes in Bathinda. The girl told her family about what had happened and the family approached the Bathinda police.

Bathinda

Civil Lines

station house officer (SHO) Rashpal Singh said, “Acting on the complaint, the girl was sent for medical examination at the Bathinda civil hospital and a case under sections 376 (rape) and 366A (procuration of minor girl) of the IPC and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act has been registered against him. Efforts are being made to arrest the singer.”