'Settlement in Moga case not legal, police shielding Badal family: AAP

The Aam Aadmi Party said that settlement between victims of the Moga incident and the bus owner is not legal. 

In a statement on Monday, senior party leader H S Phoolka said such a settlement would not absolve the bus owner of criminal charges. 

“Under Indian law a crime is against society and the offender is prosecuted by the state,” the leader said.  “It is not the victim’s responsibility to pursue the criminal case; it is the duty of the state to pursue and follow the criminal case to ensure that the guilty are punished,” the AAP leader added. 

He said that blood money law is not applicable in India.The AAP leader argued that in this case, the bus owner is liable both under civil as well as criminal law.  Phoolka said compensation under the Motor Vehicles Act comes in the purview of civil law, but the criminal case registered under the Indian Penal Code could not be settled by the victim and the bus owner. 

Phoolka said that in two recent cases, of the Nirbhaya murder and Uber taxi services, owners of the transport companies were held to be equally responsible for the crime. 

“But in the present case Punjab Police are working only to protect and shield the Chief Minister and his family,” he alleged. 

Expelled AAP leader Yogendra Yadav who is on a tour of Punjab tweeted: “Orbit’s (the transport company) charter of rights: right to defy timetable, right to transfer passengers from state buses, right to special routes, right to kill.”

He has given a call for a blackout at 10 pm on Sunday.