Bhubaneswar, Feb. 9: A sub-inspector of Mahila police station was today suspended for not registering a molestation complaint.

The sub-inspector, Suchismita Das, has been accused of misbehaving with an autorickshaw driver, who had rescued two girls from Baramunda bus terminal on the night of February 7.

The driver, Shivram Swain, a native of Berhampur, had reached the police station along with the girls and requested Das to lodge a complaint of molestation against a labour contractor in Tamando.

However, Das, instead of listening to the complainant, misbehaved with Swain and had allegedly slapped him.

Following the incident, several women activists and autorickshaw drivers staged a demonstration outside the police station on February 7 demanding action against the errant official.

Subseqently, Das was suspended today on charges of dereliction of duty.

The labour contractor, Deepak Subudhi, was arre-sted today on charges of molestation.

Police said Subudhi had brought the girls, a 19-year-old and the other 17-year-old, from Bhadrak a week ago promising them jobs in the city.

However, he confined them in a room and allegedly molested them.

The girls somehow managed to escape from there. Shivram then came to their rescue and took them to the police station.

"We did not have any idea where to go after escaping from the clutches of the labour contractor. Shivram assured us help and took us to the police station," said one of the girls.

"Subudhi has been arrested under Sections 341 (wrongful restraint), 294 (use of obscene language), 506 (criminal intimidation), 354A (sexual harassment) of Indian Penal code and Section 8 of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act," said a police official.

"The city police have already launched Pink auto service for the safety of woman passengers. Shivram did an excellent job by rescuing the girls. However, instead of getting support from the police, the latter misbehaved with him. This is very unfortunate," said Ashok Behera, an autorickshaw operator.