Claim to fame: Suppressed Sikh uprising and harassed a female bureaucrat
He was the super cop who saved India from total anarchy. But today, more than ten years after his country held him in almost a godly status, KPS Gill is a guilty man, accused and proven to have molested a female administrative officer at a party, in a drunken frenzy. He must now pay more than $4,500 as compensation to the female civil servant who said he slapped her bottom while drunk at a 1998 cocktail party.
Gill shot to fame and iconic status after he successfully stamped out Sikh militancy in the early 1990s. For his efforts, he was dubbed a one-man army, a man feared by criminals across the country, earning him the nickname of super cop. Such was his record that when, three years ago, riots swept through the state of Gujarat, he was called out of retirement and reinstated as the Gujarat security adviser. However, it was during his hey day in the 80s when as chief of the East Punjab police he misbehaved with Ms Rupan Deol Bajaj, an IAS officer.
Gill, who has always contended that he is innocent, was convicted 10 years later of “outraging her (Ms Bajaj’s) modesty”. The Sessions Court in Punjab sentenced him to three months in prison in 1998 under Section 354 (outraging the modesty of a woman) and Section 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult a woman) for pinching her. That was later commuted to a year on probation by the state high court, which ordered Gill to pay compensation to his victim and a fine. Last week, the Indian Supreme Court upheld the conviction and ordered him to pay the compensation as well as $500 in legal expenses.
Reacting to the verdict, Ms Bajaj said she was relieved and happy. “The incident was shocking as I felt that this could not have happened to me because of the position I was in,” she was quoted as saying, adding that she could not believe that people holding such important positions could behave in such a manner. Ms Bajaj has refused to accept the compensation and says the money should be donated to a women’s welfare home. Gill has also been ordered to refrain from drinking in the public. Nevertheless, the judges have ruled that it is not necessary for him to serve the jail term as Gill has already served his probation.
Controversy is nothing new for Gill who has almost always been accused of rights excesses by human rights groups during his campaign against the Sikh militancy.
Today, Gill heads the Indian Hockey Federation and since the position is an honourary one, he says the order will not affect his work. — Atif Khan
Name: KPS Gill
