Chandigarh stalking case: As father seeks justice, IAS body calls for exemplary and timely punishment for crimes again women

The Haryana IAS officer, whose daughter was allegedly stalked by a senior BJP leader's son and his friend, today took to social media to seek "maximum punishment" for the accused, adding that he will move court if charges against the duo were "diluted".

He, however, asserted that the family would not interfere with the investigation.

"We will not interfere with the investigation or the prosecution, just as we do not want the accused to influence the investigation in any way. The police and prosecution should be allowed to do their job.

"We will join the investigation whenever required by the police. We will contest in the court if we feel the charges are diluted or inadequately framed," the bureaucrat said in a Facebook post.

He promised the people who were supporting his family that, "WE SHALL NOT, EVER, BACK OUT OR STAND DOWN, irrespective of hardships or pressures".

The IAS officer said the accused being law students were fully aware of the consequences of their action.

"Our target is to ensure that the guilty are brought to book. They are adult men, students of law, who are fully aware of the consequences of their actions, and hence must be appropriately punished.

"We want them to be punished for the offences they have actually committed, and that awarded punishment commensurate with their culpability. Not over punished, but definitely not under punished either," he said.

The officer added that families of the accused were "not to be blamed".

"It is unfortunate that the families of the accused have to face hardship. We do not hold them responsible for the crimes of these men," he said.

Terming the incident as a "cut and dried" case, the bureaucrat said there would be something wrong in the society if the system failed to deliver justice.

"In a cut and dried case like this, where there is nothing hazy or unclear in terms of actions or identities, if the system fails to deliver justice, then there is something deeply rotten in our society, our government and our country," he said.

"The issue is, does our country allow a woman to live as a free and equal citizen, and if she is wronged, does it give her enough confidence to even claim justice? If not, we are no better than a lawless, barbaric society," he further wrote on Facebook.

Haryana BJP chief Subhash Barala's son Vikas (23) and Ashish Kumar (27) were earlier arrested for allegedly stalking the woman here. However, both the accused were released later on bail as they were booked under bailable sections of the IPC and the Motor Vehicles Act.

The incident had come to light when the woman, around 28 years of age, called up the police on Friday night, complaining that two youths were chasing her along a stretch of over five kilometres from Chandigarh right up to a point in the Union Territory, which is adjoining Haryana's border.

"Absolutely shocking. Time we made our nation a safe place for all women. Exemplary and timely punishment for offences a must," it said yesterday.