The chief judicial magistrate (CJM), Bhagalpur, has called a report on a woman's assault case submitted by deputy inspector-general of police (DIG), Bhagalpur, one-sided.
CJM Tribhuvan Yadav on November 28 rejected the report of DIG, Bhagalpur, Barun Kumar Sinha underlining loopholes. Yadav said if the court arrives at a conclusion on the basis of the DIG's probe report, it would be against the basic ethics of natural justice.
The CJM had earlier asked the DIG to conduct an inquiry related to a complaint registered by Sapna Suman, 30, in the court. Sapna lives in her parents' house where her stepmother too stays.
The complainant levelled serious allegations against senior superintendent of police (SSP), Bhagalpur, two station house officers (a woman officer), six policemen for assaulting her and her 4-year-old daughter when she went to register an FIR. She also alleged that she was unlawfully detained by the cops and was molested by the policemen.
Sapna registered a complaint in the court of the CJM, Bhagalpur (case no 27/16) under sections 354, 323, 341, 342, 504, 166 and 34 of Indian Penal Code (IPC) on October 27. She said a theft was committed at her house in Golaghat and she went to Tatarpur police station to lodge an FIR on October 16. But her FIR was not taken even after the instruction of SSP, Bhagalpur, Manoj Kumar. From October 16-20, she had to face the wrath of the police and again on October 20 when she went to the office of the SSP with her daughter was forcefully taken away by the cops, held captive inside a police Jeep, beaten up and molested along with her daughter.
"From 6.30pm to 9.30pm on October 21, my daughter and I were at the mercy of the cops. It felt like we had committed some heinous crime. They behaved like animals and took us from one police station to another. Finally, they threw us on the road from the Jeep and threatened us with dire consequences if I opened my mouth," Sapna said.
The court while rejecting the report of the DIG, ordered recording the statements of Sapna and her other witnesses on December 2 for further proceedings in the case.
Sanjoy Modi, the general secretary of the district bar association, who had rushed to save the woman when Ghyan Bharati, the SHO of Mahila Thana, Kotwali, and other constables were beating up Sapna and her daughter inside the SSP office near the bar association's office on the evening of October 21, later became eyewitnesses in the case.
Modi said on October 21 he and the other lawyers had admitted Sapna and her daughter to the Sadar hospital. The medical report mentioned Sapna suffered injuries because of assault, while her daughter was referred to the psychiatry ward of JLNMC hospital because she was in trauma.
"The court asked the DIG to probe the incident since the complainant has alleged senior cops. The DIG, however, submitted a one-sided report to save the cops involved in assaulting Sapna. The DIG recommended SSP Manoj to take action against Ghyan Bharati, Ajay Kumar, the SHO of Tatarpur and constable Sobha Kumari for delay in taking the FIR from Sapna. But he neither mentioned how she was harassed in the hands of the officers under the nose of the SSP nor about the injury reports of Sapna and her daughter. Second, the DIG only took the statement of Sapna but not of the witnesses from her side," Modi pointed out the loopholes of the report submitted by the DIG.
Sapna said the police have been continuously threatening her after the incident.
"After Nitish Kumar came to power a lot of work has been done to improve police-public relation in the state, but Bhagalpur police still adopt a hostile attitude," she said.
Ajay Kumar, the SHO Tatarpur, said Sapna has been unnecessarily harassing the police with her complaints. "We never beat her up. In fact we dropped her till her home on October 21 from the police station," he said.
Sources said Sapna's stepmother is behind the robbery at the house and she has been pulling the strings in the police fraternity to not accept Sapna's complaint.