New Delhi: A Dalit man who went to complain to the Uttar Pradesh police about his wife’s alleged kidnapping and gangrape has said that the police tortured him instead of taking down his complaint.
According to the Hindustan Times, the in-charge of the Bichwan police station in Mainpuri district and two constables have been suspended after the inspector general, Agra range was informed of the allegations.
The man and his wife were travelling by motorcycle on the Aligarh-Kanpur highway on Friday night when three unidentified men reportedly stopped them, threw chilli powder at them and abducted the woman in their car. The husband tried going to the police, but they accused him of “foul play”, Indian Express reported.
The man walked 4 km with his motorcycle, which the assailants had smashed, and them managed to call the police control room with the help of a passerby. When the police arrived, though, they began to question him instead of taking his claims about the kidnapping seriously.
“Policemen assaulted him during questioning. A medical examination shows injuries on his back and legs,” superintendent of police, Mainpuri, Ajai Shankar Rai was quoted as saying.
According to the New Indian Express, the three officers claimed that the man may have murdered his wife and was trying to cover it up by reporting an abduction.
Close to five hours later, the woman reportedly made her way to the police station and said that she had been gangraped by the men who abducted her. Only then did the police take down the complaint. Rai, however, claimed that the medical report did not show signs of sexual assault.
“In any case, the policemen had no right to misbehave with the complainant and as such SO, Bichwan, Rajesh Pal Singh was suspended and shifted to police lines and two constables, Chatra Pati and Krishna Veer, were suspended,” Rai told Hindustan Times.