Young woman roughed up in police station

GHAZIABAD: The Supreme Court may have taken serious note of growing cases of police violence against women, but that didn’t stop cops in Sahibabad police station from repeatedly slapping a young woman whom they accused of consuming alcohol with a male friend inside a car on Monday night.
The beating, caught on camera by local TV channels, took place after the woman and her companion were detained and brought to the police station.Senior police officials claimed the two were found in an intimate position. They were drunk and abusive, the police said while trying to justify the actions of their colleagues.
The woman said it was the cops who misbehaved with her and called her a sex worker.
“The police have fabricated charges against us. They called me a prostitute because of what I was wearing and because I was out drinking with a man late at night,” said the girl, who is in her early twenties.
The girl lives in Jafrabad, northeast Delhi, while her friend is a resident of Dilshad Garden. A video recording of the incident shows a woman in plainclothes slapping the girl who hits her back. The victim is then beaten by other cops. “The police refused to allow me to make a call home or call anyone I know,” she said.
The Ghaziabad police said they have formed a committee to investigate the allegations. The two have been released on bail.
Ghaziabad senior superintendent of police Nitin Tiwari tried to defend the cops. “The two accused were found in compromising state at 9pm at Prayas Upwan in Shalimar Garden which falls under the Sahibabad police station. A resident, Bablu, had complained about the two. We have lodged an FIR under sections 294 (obscene acts and songs), 160 (punishment for committing affray) and 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) of IPC against the two,” he said.
“Acting on the complaint, an old policeman reached the spot. The woman slapped him three times. She misbehaved with other policemen in the police chowki,” Tiwari said.
“The girl and the boy were subjected to a medical test which confirmed that they had been drinking,” Ramnath Yadav, SHO Sihani Gate, said.
The girl said that she only reacted aggressively after being slapped by a police post-in-charge and later by a local woman.
Times View
There has been a spate of recent incidents of police personnel resorting to violence, particularly against women. Even the Supreme Court was sufficiently alarmed by the trend to comment on it. Policemen might argue that there was provocation in many of these cases. Even if true, that is no excuse for getting violent. Also, there are good grounds for suspecting that there are elements of moral policing in this as well as an inability of accept ‘aggressive’ behaviour from women. If the trend is to be contained, the police need to be better trained and gender sensitised. There must also be some exemplary action against those who cross the line.