In a bizarre case of moral policing and brutality, Ghaziabad Police picked up a girl along with her male friend in an inebriated state from a house, took her to the police station and beat her up.
The incident happened at 10 pm after the neighbours complained in Sahibabad Police Station on Monday.
This is in direct contravention of the established law that forbids police from taking a woman to the police station after dark. In case this cannot be avoided, the woman has to be accompanied by a policewoman and a member of her family to the police station.
However, not only were the girl and her friend detained there at night, the girl was thrashed and dragged by her hair by a woman in plain clothes.
However, the young woman did not take the abuse lying down. TV footage showed the woman in plain clothes slapping the unidentified girl and the girl hitting back. However, she was restrained and beaten up by the policemen present there.
later, when the incident came to light, in order to cover up their misdemeanour, the police booked the girl and her friend under Section 294 of IPC (obscene songs).
“Police have misbehaved with me and that is why I reacted. If one is abused repeatedly then, one has the right to object and to argue. They called me a prostitute. If they call me a prostitute, then one should argue. I am not a prostitute and nobody has the right to speak to me like that,” the girl said in her defence.
Police sources said that the couple from Delhi was found drinking liquor in a house and creating nuisance. The Sahibabad Police was informed by the neighbours about it and they rushed to the spot and took the couple and to the police station.
In the police station they were asked to sit on the floor.
“When we brought them to the police station, the girl spoke in filthy language. The girl and the boy were subjected to medical test which confirmed that they had consumed alcohol,” police sources said, adding that they were booked under Section 294 of the IPC which is a bailable offence.
In the meantime, a resident of DlF Colony came to the police station and started thrashing the girl in the presence of the police officials. The woman dragged the girl by her hair and began instigating other men in the police station to beat her. When the girl defended herself and hit back, Sub-Inspector Iftakar Qureshi intervened and slapped the girl repeatedly.
However, the girl's male friend, who lives in Dilshad Garden and is the son of a senior officer in the Government of Delhi, was spared this ill-treatment.
Inspector General of Police (IG) Meerut Zone Bhavesh Kumar said: “I am looking into the whole matter that came to my knowledge through television news.”
Reacting to the incident, Mamta Sharma, NCW Chairperson, said: “She must not be drunk and even if she was drunk then the police had no right to slap her. The police could have waited for her to get back to normal.”
She demanded action on this incident from the Uttar Pradesh Government.