SOURCE :- SIASAT NEWS
Delhi Police on Monday, October 5, detained 18 people, including a woman who has accused an Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) of molesting her, as they demanded the registration of a First Information Report (FIR) against the officer.
Legal affairs head of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), Ratna Singh, alleged on X that the detainees were assaulted in police custody. “Two of those detained were allegedly brutally beaten,” she said, adding that the woman had told her about the assault. Singh said all 18 were being held at Delhi Cantt police station.
“Instead of protecting the victim and registering an FIR, why are those demanding justice being detained and assaulted? Shame on you, Delhi police, release all of them immediately,” Singh wrote, tagging Delhi Police. She accused the force of acting to “protect its own.”
Delhi Police has not publicly responded to the allegation of assault in custody.
The detentions came as protesters gathered outside the Parliament Street police station, demanding an FIR and a probe into allegations of sexual harassment of three women journalists by police personnel at Jantar Mantar on Saturday, October 3. The journalists were at a protest against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
According to the Press Trust of India (PTI), the protesters also wanted the CCTV footage of the alleged incident examined. One protester told PTI Videos that they had gone to the police station on the day of the incident to ask for the footage and were told to return after 24 hours. “We went back and again asked for the CCTV footage, but they did not provide it. They did not file an FIR or provide us with any update on the case. Instead, we were detained,” the protester said.
Another detained protester alleged that a similar complaint had been made in July against the same officer, but no investigation followed. She claimed the present case was also not being taken seriously.
One of the three journalists has told PTI that an ACP sexually assaulted her when she questioned the absence of women police personnel at the protest site. The New Delhi district police have transferred the complaints to the Crime Branch for a “fair and impartial enquiry”, a police officer had said earlier.
Police personnel deployed at Jantar Mantar did not wear name tags as a deliberate measure, officials aware of the matter told Hindustan Times. They said the step was meant to stop personnel from being identified and targeted on social media, as happened after the July 20 violence during the CJP march.
On the first day of the protests against Kumar, protesters filmed policemen and questioned why they were not wearing tags. Some personnel said the tags had fallen off, others said they had forgotten them, and many gave no explanation.
According to the report, officers who handled the July crowds told review meetings that they and their families had been targeted online. They were reportedly assured that no action would be taken for removing tags if they acted within the law. Most Indian Police Service (IPS) officers kept their tags on this time, while many junior personnel did not.
SOURCE : SIASAT
