The National Commission for Scheduled Castes has asked top officials of the Punjab government to appear before it on July 31 for a hearing in the matter of “sexual misconduct” allegations against state minister Lal Chand Kataruchak.

On the directions of its chairman Vijay Sampla, the commission asked the chief secretary, the director general of police, and the deputy inspector general (Amritsar border range), to appear before it.

The commission also asked the officials to bring an up-to-date action taken report and all other relevant documents, including the relevant files, case diaries and others.

It further said that the petitioner may also be asked to be present on the day of the hearing.

The development came days after the alleged victim in the case stated before the Punjab Police special investigation team (SIT) that he did not want to pursue his complaint against the minister.

The commission had issued three notices to the Punjab government in this matter, seeking an action taken report.

Following the notices, the DIG had submitted an action taken report to the commission on June 12.

The Punjab Police had earlier formed a three-member SIT to look into the "sexual misconduct" charge against the minister.

In his complaint, the victim had said that Kataruchak allegedly approached the victim "by sending him a friend request on Facebook in 2013-14 and when he accepted it, the minister allegedly started making advances".

"Since he was an influential person, he had promised me a government job due to which I remained mum. I was too young at that time to understand anything. But, his sexual excesses continued till 2021. However, he met me for the last time on Diwali in 2021 and he neither provided me with a job, nor met me after that," the victim had earlier claimed.

It was Congress MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira who had handed over “video clips of gross misconduct" to Punjab Governor Banwarilal Purohit for forensic examination.

Purohit had then forwarded the forensic report of the video to Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann.

Purohit had even asked the chief minister to take action against Kataruchak, alleging that the minister had committed a "heinous crime".

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