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NHRC seeks Punjab report on Rs 5 crore claim
The Print··23 Aug
On 22 August 2026, the National Human Rights Commission asked Punjab's Chief Secretary and Director General of Police to inquire into a claim that Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann's wife Gurpreet Kaur sought Rs 5 crore to suppress a rape case. Member Priyank Kanoongo sought an Action Taken Report in two weeks and informed the Union Home Ministry.
Prism
What It Means For You
- If you follow the Amritsar rape file, the High Court has already moved the investigation away from the local team and refused a CBI transfer.
- Anyone waiting on the NHRC clock should count two weeks from the 21-22 August notice to the Chief Secretary and DGP, not from the legal notice to the retired judge.
- If you read only the Rs 5 crore figure, that number appears in pleadings by the complainant's father and by respondent Simranjit Singh Hundal; it is not a court finding.
What's Happening
- Legal Rights Observatory placed the retired judge's public remarks before the NHRC, which then issued the state notice.
- Hundal's petition alleged Amardeep Singh Grewal, described as linked to the CM's wife, was seeking money to cancel FIRs; the state called those claims baseless.
- The girl was rescued on 1 May. The High Court recorded the state's submission that the pair had been in a live-in relationship and that the case arose from an unfulfilled promise of marriage.
How Two Petitions Put One Figure On Record
- Ranjit Singh heads the Punjab Human Rights Organisation and has been identified by AAP as Congress leader Sukhpal Khaira's brother-in-law.
- Justice Pannu wrote that the court was not deciding whether the Rs 4-5 crore claim was true, only that the apprehension of an unfair local probe was real enough to change the investigating officer.
- A second Mohali case against Chahal and a complaint to the Mohali SSP on 24 May are also mentioned in the High Court papers.
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