The fiancée of an Army officer has alleged that she suffered s*xual assault at a police station in Bhubaneswar, India.
The 32-year-old woman said that she was b3aten up, ch0ked, str!pped, st@mped on her chest and pulled by her hair by police officers.
The incident occurred when the woman and her partner, an army officer, went to the Bharatpur Police Station to file a complaint against miscreants who had waylaid them when they were returning home on September 15. But what was expected to be mere filing a complaint and subsequent police action, turned into a night of horror.
A retired Indian high court judge will investigate allegations that the woman was physically and s*xually assaulted by a group of police inside a police station in the eastern state of Odisha, the authorities say.
After the allegations, levelled last week by the 32-year-old woman and her army fiancé, led to a huge outcry, four police officials, including three women, were suspended. A fifth policeman was transferred.
The action came after the state’s crime branch opened an inquiry into the case.
A video of the woman, a law graduate who runs a restaurant in the state capital Bhubaneswar, detailing her alleged abuse by police early on the morning of 15 September has been shared many times on social media.
In a wheelchair, with a collar around her neck and one arm in a sling, the woman repeatedly breaks down while narrating to journalists what she says happened to her.
She said she had gone to Bharatpur police station with her fiance after closing her restaurant at around 01:00 because they had been harassed by a group of men on the road. They asked police to send a patrol car quickly to intercept the men who couldn’t have gone far, she said.
“The police refused to take down our complaint, instead they abused us. When I told them that I was a law graduate and knew my rights, they got even more angry.”
The situation escalated after the police locked up her fiance, she alleged.
“When I objected, two female officials started pulling my hair and beating me. I kept pleading with them to stop. But they dragged me through the corridor and one of them tried to strangle me. When I fought back, they tied my hands and legs and locked me up in a room,” she said, sobbing.
“One male officer came in and took off my bra and started kicking me in my breasts. At around 06:00, the officer in charge of the police station came into the room. He pulled my pants down. Then he lowered his pants and threatened to r@pe me multiple times unless I stopped screaming for help,” she alleged.
Reports in the Indian media last week quoted police as saying the army officer and his fiancee had arrived at the station drunk and the woman had been aggressive. They alleged that she had slapped a policewoman and bitten another officer.
She was arrested and a magistrate placed her in custody. But three days after the alleged assault, the high court freed the woman on bail and criticised the police and the lower court that jailed her.
“On careful examination of the record, it appears that the allegations are very serious in nature… They are anathema to the very concept of a democratic and orderly society,” Justice Aditya Kumar Mohapatra said, adding that the “police had failed to follow the procedure laid down in law while arresting her”.
Justice Mohapatra said he had been informed by the government’s lawyer that “drastic action has been taken against the erring police officers… and appropriate action shall be taken against those found guilty”.
The magistrate had also “failed to apply their judicial mind” in denying the woman bail, he added.
Since then, many in India have taken to social media to express their anger at police brutality.
A large number of former and serving army officials have shared the viral video of the woman and pledged support to her fight since her father is a retired army brigadier.
The Indian army has also written a letter to the chief justice of the high court in Odisha saying that a “serving officer had been kept in custody for nearly 14 hours without any charge” and because of “the grave incident… his prestige was demeaned”.
“The modesty and dignity of his fiancee, who also happens to be the daughter of a retired brigadier, was grossly outraged by the police authorities,” the letter adds.
Her father, who told the BBC that he had spent hours frantically trying to locate his daughter that night, said the police had not even informed him or his family about the allegations against his daughter.
“Some army officers informed me that my daughter had been arrested and sent to jail. I was allowed to meet her only the next afternoon,” he said. “I hope we will get justice.”
The state government said it “respects the Indian army” and is “concerned about the dignity, safety and rights of women”.
It has nominated retired Justice Chitta Ranjan Dash to hold an inquiry and submit a report within 60 days.
The woman’s allegations are being investigated and her statement has been recorded, crime branch official Narendra Behera told the media.
The seven men accused of harassing the couple were arrested by police and released on bail.
On social media, some Indians have criticised the woman’s clothing while others have questioned “the character of a woman who argues with men and drinks alcohol”.
Namrata Chadha, lawyer and women’s rights activist who met the woman in the hospital, told the BBC that it is “heartbreaking to see this kind of victim shaming”.
“She has an injured shoulder, a cut on her face and swelling around her eye. She is very traumatised. While talking to me, her eyes welled up several times. I told her, ‘You’ll have to be courageous and face it all.’ She said she will fight to the end.”
Watch the victim speak in the video below.
Mumbai Watch |
As anger grows in India over an alleged sexual assault inside a police station, Odisha authorities confirmed on September 23 that the case is now under the Indian High Court, with a retired judge appointed to investigate.
In a video statement, the 32-year-old… pic.twitter.com/SrY5moqgwd
— South Asia Times (@SATimes_TV) September 24, 2024