India, Chandigarh: Today, police said, almost a month after a young Dalit woman was dragged out of her office and later allegedly raped in Punjab’s Muktsar district, the main accused, Jagdeep Singh, has surrendered. A court in Muktsar sent the accused to three days police custody.

The victim, in her early 20s and working in a private computer centre, was dragged out of her office, in presence of office staff and clients, and taken away in a car by the accused. The whole incident, which happened on March 25, was recorded in a CCTV camera outside the computer centre. Eyewitnesses at the computer centre told police that the accused first spoke to the woman for some time and then dragged her out of the office. She was abducted and taken to a farmhouse in Muktsar district and raped by the accused. She was later dumped in Malout town in south-west Punjab.

The Punjab Police drew flak from various quarters, including the National Commission for Scheduled Castes, for registering the rape case after five days. Police officials claimed that the accused and the victim belonged to the same village and were known to each other.