Chandigarh, June 10
In a belated damage-control exercise, director-general of the Haryana police Ranjiv Dalal today dismissed two of his men, who were accused of raping a woman in Rohtak, invoking “extra-ordinary legal provisions.”
The rape victim had committed suicide in the police headquarter in Panchkula yesterday after she failed to get justice from the Rohtak police.
Head constable Balraj Singh and constable Silak Ram, who have been sacked under the provisions of Article 311(2) of the Constitution, which allows dismissal of government service without holding an inquiry against the person, have, however, absconded.
The victim (25), who had accused the two constables of raping her on April 10, consumed poison yesterday before she again approached ADGP, law and order, V.B. Singh for justice. She later died in a hospital leaving behind a suicide note holding them responsible for her death.
She had appeared in the open darbar of the DGP in Panchkula a week ago complaining that the Rohtak police was not taking action against the accused. It was only then a case was registered against the policemen, who had allegedly raped her while her husband was in the custody of the Rohtak CIA staff on the charge of possessing a stolen motorcycle.
The policemen, the woman had alleged, first demanded Rs
6,000 for releasing her husband and when she could not pay the bribe, they raped her. She lodged a complaint with the SP, Rohtak, after her husband came out on bail. Instead of acting promptly, the SP marked the complaint for an inquiry in a routine manner. Meanwhile, the accused policemen started threatening her. They even reportedly offered her money to keep her mouth shut.
Dalal also asked ADGP, crime, Sharad Kumar, to inquire into the circumstances leading to the denial of justice to the unfortunate woman as well as to fix the responsibility for the delay. He has been asked to give his report within 10 days.
A visibly crest-fallen Dalal admitted that the incident had put the state police on back foot and there was insensitivity shown by certain senior police officers in dealing with the complaint lodged by the woman.
Meanwhile, four teams have been constituted to track down the absconding constables. Terming their action as a “stupid reaction”, Dalal said the police would catch up with them soon and they would be dealt with strictly as per law. He said the investigation of the case had been handed over to the state crime bureau.
Though he said action against the senior officers whose insensitivity led the woman to commit suicide would be contemplated after the inquiry report was received, sources say some action, may be transfer of a senior officer of the Rohtak police, is under “active consideration” of the government.
The DGP said while he would recommend the government to provide compensation to the family of the woman, the police on its own would extend financial assistance to safeguard the future of her two daughters.
A meeting of senior officers was held earlier in the day, where certain decisions were taken to strengthen “in-house” mechanism to prevent such cases in future. Dalal said in future any complaint received at the police headquarter about sexual harassment of a woman by a policeman, would be inquired into by the head office teams.
The district police chiefs have been asked to constitute committees to screen the 45,000-strong force to find out any “wayward” elements, particularly at the level of constables, head constables and ASIs, so that these can be removed from the force before they bring a bad name to the force.
