Patna, March 5: Basanti Devi (name changed), a resident of Kushinagar in Uttar Pradesh, had not thought that the custodian of law in Bihar would become a tormentor for her.

Thirty-year-old Basanti decided to take shelter at Patkholi police outpost (Bagaha) in West Champaran district on Friday night thinking that she would be safe at the hands of the minions of law.

But destiny had willed otherwise for Basanti, who had left her in-laws’ house at Madanpur Dairiari village in Kushinagar district of Uttar Pradesh only a day earlier to escape the ill treatment meted out by her in-laws.

Munna Khan, a home guard deputed at the police outpost, took advantage of darkness and allegedly outraged her modesty on the police station premises. Her cries for help, however, went unheard as nobody came to her rescue.

The matter came to light this morning when she narrated the incident to one Radhika Devi, who too was detained by the police for providing shelter to the victim. Radhika narrated the incident to the local residents, who, in turn, took up the matter with senior police officials. “Khan has been arrested and forwarded to jail,” said Bagaha superintendent of police (SP) Anil Kumar Singh. He said the station house officer of Patkholi police outpost Roshan Kumar and the police constable on sentry duty have also been suspended for dereliction of duty.

Director-general of police Neel Mani said in Patna that the police headquarters has issued instructions to the Bagaha SP to immediately dismiss the home guard.

, who has been charged with raping the woman on the police station premises. “I have also asked the SP to put the case on speedy trial to get the accused convicted at the earliest,” he said, adding that the headquarters would not tolerate indecent behaviour at the police station.

This is, however, not an isolated case. At least three incidents of alleged molestation of young girls by police personnel have been reported from Patliputra and Shastrinagar police stations respectively in the past fortnight.

While the station house officer of Shastrinagar police station, Sanjay Kumar, was removed from the police station after he failed to trace the constable involved in molesting a girl student in an autorickshaw on Bailey Road a few days ago, a constable was suspended after he along with his friend were charged with attempting to molest a girl when she was returning home after a wedding party in Patliputra Colony.