Muktsar SP, 2 more cops arrested after advocate’s torture, forced sex in custody; SIT formed
Chandigarh, September 27
A superintendent of police and two other policemen from Muktsar district were arrested on Wednesday after a lawyer and another men were allegedly tortured and forced into having sex in custody, an officer said.
The officer said that under the chairmanship of Ludhiana Police Commissioner Mandeep Singh Sidhu a four-member Special Investigation Team has been formed to investigate the torture allegation.
The SIT will be supervised by Additional Director General of Police (Intelligence) Jaskaran Singh and will have three other policemen as members.
The action came following a meeting of a delegation of the bar association of the Punjab and Haryana High Court with Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann here.
On Monday, six policemen including an SP rank officer were booked for subjecting a lawyer in their custody to torture that included forcing him into sex with a co-accused in Muktsar.
The case was registered against Muktsar SP (Investigation) Ramandeep Singh Bhullar, Inspector Raman Kumar Kamboj, constables Harbans Singh, Bhupinder Singh, and Gurpreet Singh, and home guard Dara Singh, according to the FIR.
SP Bhullar, Inspector Raman Kumar Kamboj, and Constable Harbans Singh have been arrested.
The SIT will investigate the allegations of custodial torture levelled by the lawyer and submit its report to the Director Bureau of Investigation, Punjab.
Since Tuesday, when the torture allegations were first reported, lawyers affiliated with the Bar Association of Punjab and Haryana High Court have been boycotting work in solidarity with their colleagues, demanding the policemen’s dismissal and arrest.
The advocate was arrested on September 14 along with another man following a complaint by the Crime Investigation Agency in-charge Raman Kumar Kamboj in which he alleged that the lawyers had assaulted a police team and tore some officers’ uniforms.
The Muktsar Chief Judicial Magistrate in an order on September 22 had directed police to register a case against the policemen on the basis of the advocate’s statement.
“The statement of the victim is treated as complaint as per Section 2 (D) of the Criminal Procedure Code, in which prima facie cognizable offences of abetment of unnatural sex and causing injuries in wrongful confinement, causing threat to his life and liberty, shown,” the court said in its order.
The policemen were booked under several sections including 377 (unnatural sex), 342 (wrongful confinement), and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code.
