Bhubaneswar, May 23: Wife of IPS officer Jai Narayan Pankaj, who had registered a dowry complaint against her husband in March, today demanded justice from the Odisha government.
Though Pankaj said that he had got a bail and dismissed the allegations as “false and baseless”, she accused the police of helping her husband.
“Though I had registered a complaint with the police on March 19, I learnt that my husband obtained an anticipatory bail. As the police did not take immediate action, he got the time to move court,” said Meenal Agarwal, 31.
Mahila police station had registered a case against Pankaj on March 19 under sections 498A and 323 of the Indian Penal Code.
However, Pankaj denied the allegations made by his wife. “All the allegations made by her are false. Earlier, she had lodged a case against me, which was quashed,” said Pankaj.
Agarwal, an arts graduate, also alleged that through his batch mates, Pankaj has been harassing her father who lives in Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh.
“He has been harassing me mentally and physically since our marriage in March 2007. Though my parents have given cash and other assets, he kept on demanding more. Though I had met senior IPS officials demanding action against him, nothing has been done so far,” she alleged.
Agarwal had also lodged a complaint in August 2009 alleging that Pankaj had beaten her up brutally, which had led to miscarriage of her child. “After I lodged the complaint, my parents had intervened. As a result, Pankaj took me with him. For the next one year, he was behaving normally. But, he again started torturing me once the FIR was quashed,” she added.
Pankaj was the police superintendent of Nayagarh when Agarwal had lodged the complaint.
“On March 11, he assaulted me and asked me to leave his house. Frequent torture by him often forced me to stay with my parents in Uttar Pradesh,” added Agarwal.
Pankaj, a native of Bihar and a 2005-batch IPS officer, was posted as police superintendent in several districts, including Kandhamal and Balasore, before being appointed as police superintendent of the vigilance wing in Sambalpur. The couple has a five-year-old son.
Inspector in charge of Mahila police station Sujata Panda, however, denied the allegation about police inaction. “We have taken steps as per the law,” she said.
