Thaindian News

By Jaideep Sarin and Alkesh Sharma
Chandigarh, Jan 31 (IANS) Ranjit Bajaj, a prominent socialite and the only child of powerful former bureaucrat couple B.R. Bajaj and Rupan Deol Bajaj, also happens to be a serial offender. He now has an attempt to murder case filed against him.

The Panchkula police registered an attempt to murder case against Ranjit after he allegedly bashed up the son of a sitting judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court late Friday night at a resort near here.

B.R. Bajaj and Rupan Deol Bajaj have been high-profile and powerful bureaucrats in the Punjab government. Rupan Deol Bajaj became a much known name after she accused former Punjab supercop K.P.S. Gill of outraging her modesty by pinching her bottom at a private party in 1988.

Less than a month ago, Rupan Bajaj told the media that “criminals” and “molestors” like former police chiefs K.P.S. Gill and S.P.S. Rathore of Haryana, held guilty of molesting teenager Ruchika Girhotra in 1990, were roaming free in society and that their rightful place was behind the bars.

That statement has come to haunt Rupan Bajaj, who is now serving as an information commissioner in Punjab in a post-retirement assignment, as her son Ranjit has been slapped with a fresh case - for a non-bailable and serious crime.

In the last 10 years, Ranjit’s profile in crime has been - booked for kidnapping, extortion, cheating, forgery, violation of the Arms Act, involved with drug peddlers, illegal confinement, stealing a car, beating up a policeman on duty, setting a car on fire and many more.

In the recent incident, Gurmohan Singh Bedi, son of high court judge M.M.S. Bedi, alleged that Ranjit along with two private security guards hit him with weapons at the North Park resort over a parking argument at the winter ball of St John’s Old Boys Association (SJOBA).

Gurmohan alleged that Ranjit not only hit him but even threatened to kill him following the altercation.

But Rupan Bajaj defended her son.

She told IANS Sunday: “I am feeling very sad about all this. Ranjit is innocent and he had not indulged in any kind of scuffle or hit anybody. He neither carries any weapons nor does he have any personal security guard.”

“Ranjit had gone to the SJOBA ball around 11.30 p.m. Friday with his girlfriend and 2-3 more female friends. While returning, a group of 8-9 boys, who were drinking in the parking area, passed some remarks at the girls. Ranjit opposed it and there was a minor verbal altercation. There was no major scuffle as was mentioned in the FIR (first information report),” stated Rupan Bajaj.

“From there, Ranjit and his friends went to the nearest police station to register their complaint but the police official told them to come the next day. At 3.30 p.m. we got a call from Justice Bedi and he told us that Ranjit’s security guards had beaten his son,” she said.

Rupan Bajaj described Justice Bedi as a “very close family friend”.

She said the police came to look for the security guards Saturday. “It is quite illogical that earlier they (the police) were blaming the security guards, who were never there, but later they booked Ranjit under the serious charge of attempt to murder.”

Rupan Bajaj claimed that her son was booked as a fallout of the complaint that he and the girls went to make at the police station against the other boys.

Police said Ranjit is on the run. “We are trying to trace him,” said Varinder Singh, deputy superintendent of police of Panchkula in Haryana, 10 km from Chandigarh.

In an earlier case in May 2000, Ranjit had allegedly kidnapped the teenaged Sunny Garg, son of a billionaire industrialist, and allegedly confined him to the official bungalow of his parents in the upscale Sector 16 here. He allegedly thrashed Garg with a rod and later demanded a ransom of Rs.20 lakh from the boy’s father. The boy was released following Rupan Bajaj’s reported intervention and the matter settled after both sides reached a compromise.

In another case in 2001, Ranjit allegedly set on fire the car of a youth who had led an attack on him.

In May 2000, he was found in illegal possession of a pistol and had forged the arms licence of his parents and pasted his photograph on it. He was slapped with a case of forgery.

Ranjit’s first crime was reported in 1996 when he was just 15 years old. He has continuously made news since then, for the wrong reasons, especially in the last one decade.

His mother claims that Ranjit had been acquitted in all the previous cases against him, registered mainly by Chandigarh Police.