Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, Feb 9: A sub-inspector of Mahila police station was suspended Monday for not registering complaint of two rape victims and for beating up an autorickshaw driver who had brought the duo to the police station Sunday.
Confirming the report to Orissa POST, commissioner of police Rajendra Prasad Sharma said, “Yes, sub-inspector Suchsmita Das has been suspended. I hope, the action will help build confidence among people.”
On February 7, an autorickshaw driver Shivaram Swain, who was going to Siripur from Baramunda, spotted two girls and asked them if they wanted to go anywhere. The two started crying and told him they had escaped from a house near Tomando where they were kept in confinement for four days and raped repeatedly.
Swain took the duo to the commissionerate police who in turn, asked him to take them to Mahila police station to have their complaint registered. A PCR van also followed the auto to the Mahila station where ‘‘the sub-inspector hurled abuses at me and roughed me up before inspector in-charge Bijayinee Malla, for bringing the rape victims. They were not willing to lodge the complaint,” said Swain.
He went to the commissionerate police and narrated his ordeal to the police commissioner. Subsequently, by 4pm, the news broke out that the sub-inspector was suspended.
The auto driver said he had to take up the issue with Sharma after the SI threatened to dump him in jail in a fake case. “The SI said I won’t be able to ply auto in Bhubaneswar as I’d be booked in false charges,’’ Swain said. Incidentally, several victims of sexual harassment had reported to this paper that their complaints were being ignored by the cops. “They called me whore when I went to lodge a complaint once,” said a woman, who alleged a man claiming to be chief minister’s body guard has been roaming around her house and sending nasty messages to her phone.
Another victim, who was burnt by her husband, said, “They made me sit since morning to 9pm to get my case registered, though they said there is no arrest done under section 498 (cruelty by husband) of IPC.”
