Bhubaneswar, Sept. 7: The scene keeps returning to her like a nightmare. Pramila Padhi, the lady constable recuperating at a city hospital, can still feel the pain of not just the blows rained on her by the unruly Congress workers, but also the emotional hurt it has caused.
“They dragged me backwards every time I tried to run. When I fell down, some of them even groped me through my security jacket. They pulled me by my hair and kept hitting me with lathis till everything became a blur,” recounted Pramila, fear and shock still reflecting in her eyes.
The 39-year-old lawkeeper had been deployed near the podium to provide protection to women activists of the Congress when violence broke out at the party’s rally here on Thursday. “The mob, armed with bamboo sticks, rushed towards policemen and start pelting stones at them. We scurried for cover but they caught hold of me and started beating me. I remember opening my eyes in the hospital,” said Pramila, who was rescued from the clutches of the violent protesters by her colleagues and admitted to the Capital Hospital and later shifted to a private medical facility.
She is said to be in a stable condition and her CT scan report has not revealed any internal injury. The doctors are, however, keeping her under observation for the next 48 to 72 hours. Pramila, who joined the police services as a constable in 1999 in Gajapati, has been attached to Infocity police station for more than three-and-a-half years now.
She said she had been in similar situations before in her 13-year-long career. “But this was a different mob and they were very aggressive. They had planned to attack women cops and even their leaders instigated them,” she said, as her 10-year-old son, Praveen reached out to comfort her.
Standing next to the injured constable’s bed was husband, Giridhari Panda, an employee of a private university here, who flinched every time she groaned in pain.
“I was at work when I heard about the attack and immediately rushed to the hospital,” Giridhari said, adding that Pramila had left home at 7am with her lunchbox yesterday. “She did not even find time to eat. I saw the lunchbox full last evening. Neither my son nor I have been able to eat anything since yesterday,” he said and paused to answer a phone call.
“My phone has not stopped ringing since last evening. People in my village, Paralakhemundi, have been calling up constantly to ask about her health,” said the Patia resident, who married Pramila in 2000.
The policewoman’s plight has attracted the attention of both the state commission for women and the human rights commission. Chairperson of the women commission Jyoti Panigrahi met her at the hospital today. “We have taken suo motu cognizance of the case. We will investigate the matter and initiate appropriate steps,” said Panigrahi, condemning the attack on the constable.
The state human rights commission, acting on the memorandum from Biju Janata Dal woman leader Pramila Mallick, has also directed the Bhubaneswar deputy commissioner of police Nitinjeet Singh to submit a report on the violent incident within a fortnight and keep it informed on Padhi’s health status.
Two other injured policemen including inspector in charge of Nayapalli police station Anup Kanungo and constable Kailash Chandra Nauri are recuperating at different hospitals in the city.
The police have arrested 35 Congress activists in connection with yesterday’s violence who were sent to Jharapada special jail after a local court rejected their bail plea.
Singh said around five complaints have been registered by police officers and people who stay along Mahatma Gandhi Marg, the venue for the rally, against the protesters including Congress leaders. “We will arrest others involved in the incident,” said the deputy commissioner.
