Puri: An assistant sub-inspector (ASI) of Sea Beach police station here and two of his colleagues allegedly assaulted a betel shop owner after he refused to pay the monthly ‘donation’ January 22.
The police officials had also detained the victim, Krutibas Das of Matimandap Sahi, for the whole night on the pretext of interrogation.
The ordeal of Das did not end there as the Town police, under whose territorial jurisdiction the locality falls, even refused to accept his complaint. Consequently, Das sent his complaint to the police station by post, sources said.
According to the complaint, an ASI and two other employees of Sea Beach police station had asked Das to pay the monthly ‘donation’ when he was about to close his betel shop around 10 pm January 22.
The ASI had allegedly ransacked Das’ shop and assaulted him after he expressed his inability to pay them. The police officials reportedly told Das that no one can run a shop in the locality without paying the monthly ‘donation’ to them.
The ASI had dragged Das to the Sea Beach police station and detained him after he pointed out that his betel shop comes under the jurisdiction of Town police. The police officials allowed Das to go home in the afternoon of January 23.
“I had gone to Town police station January 24 to lodge a complaint. They refused to accept it. So, I have sent the written complaint by post,” Das claimed.
When contacted, Sea Beach police station in-charge Bishwaranjan Senapati refuted the allegations. “The person concerned used to keep his betel shop open till late in the night every day. Our officials had only asked him to close the shop January 22 and he misbehaved with an ASI on that day,” Senapati added.
Town police in-charge Umashankar Singh said they have not received any complaint from Das. “We can launch a probe only after receiving the complaint,” he added.
PNN
