A Salt Lake court on Monday sent the assistant sub-inspector of police and a civic police volunteer of the Bidhannagar commissionerate who had been arrested for allegedly molesting a woman from Asansol to 14 days’ judicial custody.
Assistant sub-inspector Sandip Kumar Pal and civic volunteer Abhishek Malakar were in police custody for the past three days.
An officer of the Bidhannagar commissionerate said on Sunday night, they reconstructed the sequence of events.
“We took the two and recreated the events that took place that night. We asked them to show us the exact route they had taken before dropping the woman off on EM Bypass opposite Mani Square mall,” said the officer.
On Monday, the duo were produced before additional chief judicial magistrate of the Bidhannagar court in Mayukh Bhavan, Santanu Ganguly.
Public prosecutor Shabir Ali told the court that Pal’s cellphone had been recovered from the barracks of the Bidhannagar commissionerate near AE Block on the banks of the Kestopur canal.
The woman had said in her complaint that Pal and Malakar molested her while giving her a lift on a bike in Salt Lake.
According to the complaint, Pal had told the woman that he would get off and Malakar would drop her but shortly after getting off the bike at the barracks, he hopped back on and sandwiched the woman between him and Malakar.
“The recovery of the cellphone from the barrack proves that Pal had malaise intentions as despite getting off the bike he climbed back on and continued to molest the woman,” Ali told the court.
The cops’ defence counsels had moved a bail petition.
“The investigating team have claimed that Pal’s cellphone has been recovered from the barracks. However, he had already deposited it on the day of his arrest. We want the team investigating the case to check the cellphone tower location of the said cellphone and deposit its findings to the court,” said Mukherjee.
Ganguly sent the two to 14 days’ judicial remand.
