Delhi police pulled up for shutting eyes on lady cop`s molestation case

New Delhi: The Delhi Police has been pulled up by a court here for "shutting its eyes" on the complaint of its lady constable accusing a Station House Officer of molesting her in a police station.

The court also expressed its displeasure over a magisterial court`s refusal to order registration of FIR on her complaint. "It is very unfortunate that a department (Delhi Police), which is responsible to investigate every crime in Delhi, is alleged to have shut its eyes from the crime having been committed upon their own employee i.i. Complainant and that allegedly by their officer i.e. SHO, who was duty bound to prevent crime in his area," Additional Sessions Judge Rajender Kumar Shastri said. The ASJ`s observation came on an appeal filed by a lady constable through her counsel Hena Shah against a magisterial court order refusing to direct lodging of FIR on her complaint against the then SHO, BS Rana of Kalkaji Police Station here, citing absence of independent witnesses to prove allegations. The Sessions court, however, sets aside the magistrate`s decision saying, "A prima facie case of cognizable offence was made out. In my opinion, it was contrary to law, not to direct the SHO to register FIR." It also directed the complainant to appear before the trial court on August 12. The 22-year-old constable had said that in January 2012 while she was posted at Kalkaji Police Station, the SHO had allegedly molested her in a rest room of the police station. On making a complaint to her seniors, she was transferred to Sarita Vihar Police Station here. While directing the magistrate to hear the case afresh, the court said, "It is eerie that a young working girl could not get justice even from a court of law, which rejected her prayer, saying all the facts of the case were within the knowledge of the complainant and hence there appeared no ground to issue any direction to the SHO." It also observed that "a young constable swearing on oath an incident of molestation at the hands of her boss, it was established during department enquiry that the complainant and respondents met together in police station in the night. "It is very hard to believe that such young official will level false allegation against her boss and a senior police officer like SHO and that relating to her own dignity," the judge added. The court in its order also noted the complainant`s claim that she had lodged a complaint with the DCP concerned as well as to the Commissioner of Police, but no FIR was registered and she was transferred from the police station. PTI