-The Telegraph
TV pictures of a young woman being pulled by the hair and thrashed inside a police station have caused outrage in poll-bound Punjab and embarrassed the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal.
Raj Kaur, 22, was beaten up by head constable Manjeet Singh at the Baretta police station, over 200km from Chandigarh, in Mansa district for allegedly stealing a gold chain. Someone filmed the assault on a cellphone camera.
A district official alleged that station house officer Sikandar Singh had ordered Manjeet to teach Raj Kaur “a lesson” after women constables refused to beat her.
The state human rights commission has issued notices to the district police and the administration.
Mansa falls under the Bathinda Lok Sabha seat, represented by Harsimrat Kaur Badal, daughter-in-law of chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and wife of deputy chief minister Sukhbir Badal.
“The guilty must be punished,” she said, adding that under the poll code of conduct, it is for the Election Commission to take action.
The district administration has suspended Manjeet and ordered a departmental inquiry against Sikandar. No action has been taken against another person, said to be a liquor contractor, seen egging Manjeet on.
Sources said Raj Kaur and another woman, Paramjit Kaur, had been called to the police station in a case of theft registered a year ago.
In 1993, four women accused of stealing a Canadian national’s purse had “jebkatri” (pickpocket) tattooed across their foreheads by the Amritsar police, triggering a national controversy.