A Human Rights activist of the city here with the help of the District Child Protection Cell (DCPC) rescued two minor boys on Tuesday from the illegal detention of Railway Protection Force (RPF) and lodged an FIR against RPF Inspector AK Dash.
The minor boys were kept in RPF lockup for last eight days and were beaten mercilessly, the FIR said. The FIR also alleged that the arrogant RPF inspector too attacked some media persons and broke their cameras while they were covering the incident.
“I am also going to move the Odisha Human Rights Commission (OHRC) seeking stringent punishment for the erring police officer, who illegally and unethically detained the minor boys in police custody for over a week,” said advocate and HR activist Gadadhar Sahu. He along with DCPC officials later handed over the minor boys to their parents at Jobra in the city.
“On a verbal complaint of a senior IAS officer of the State, the RPF inspector acted inhumanly by detaining and torturing the minor boys for more than 24 hours in police custody,” Sahu said, adding that the babu had reportedly complained that the mobile phone of one of his relatives, who was travelling in train was stolen at the Cuttack railway station.
“There was no written complaint made, no accused was named and no witness was examined in the case. But the police picked up these two minor boys on December 31, 2013 from the station and detained them illegally for more than 24 hours violating the Supreme Court guideline as well as the police manual,” Sahu said.
When contacted, Dash denied the allegations, saying the boys were picked up only on Monday and he was investigating into the allegations made against them. Dash also claimed that a stolen mobile phone was recovered from the boys.