Taking cognizance of the allegations by three sisters in Assam of being stripped and beaten up by policemen at an outpost in Darrang district, the the National Commission for Women (NCW) on Wednesday (September 18) sought stern action from Assam Police against officials involved in the act.
One of the women, who was pregnant has alleged of undergoing a miscarriage after being subjected to torture in custody, said a report by Indian Express.
The complainants, who belong to the Muslim community, said they were taken in police custody last week after a case of kidnapping was registered against their brother who was in a relationship with a Hindu woman.
Assam DGP Kuladhar Saikia said the outpost in-charge sub-inspector Mahendra Sarma and a woman constable named Binita Boro were suspended on Tuesday (September 17) and criminal cases were registered against them. Saikia has also asked the department to probe the allegations and give a report within a week.
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The matter came to light, forcing the police to take cognizance of the matter when one of the sisters approached the media. The sisters alleged that Assam police did not take any action for eight days even after they filed a complaint about the incident with the police.
One of the sisters, a 28-year-old homemaker, said she in her complaint to Darrang SP Amrit Bhuyan on September 10, had narrated the family’s ordeal of being forcefully taken to the outpost and assaulted by Sarmah and Boro. She said, the police took them into custody after a case of kidnapping was filed against their brother for eloping with a girl. The police showed up at their house at 1:30 am on September 9 and took her, her husband and her two sisters, aged 30 and 18, to the Burah police outpost in Darrang, the woman said.
She alleged Sarmah held a pistol to her head when she asked him where they were being taken to.
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“They locked up my husband. First, they stripped my youngest sister naked and hit her with a baton. She is partially disabled in her left leg. They hit her on the same leg,” news reports quoted the complainant as saying.
Police repeatedly hit the elder sister, aged 30, on her stomach although she kept pleading them that she was pregnant, the complainant said. She said the torture didn’t end even after their brother arrived at the station with the girl he had eloped with. “He arrived with the girl at 6.30 am at the outpost. He asked them why we were tortured for a case against him. They beat him too. We believe the two of them (her brother and the woman) were involved in a full-fledged affair,” she said, adding that her brother is married but estranged from his wife.
Some reports say the sisters were taken into custody after the family of the girl who had eloped with their brother filed a case of kidnapping against him on September 6.
