TV channel ‘exposed’ case in April
Tribune News Service
Panchkula, October 9
The Haryana police today registered a case and ordered an inquiry into the alleged beating up of a minor boy by the CIA staff of the Panchkula police on its office premises in Mansa Devi. The said incident, “exposed” by a television channel, took place during the last Navratra mela at the shrine there.
The police was thrown into a tizzy as soon as the news spread about the beating up of the minor, picked up from an adjoining cluster of jhuggis on April 13 this year. Senior police officers, including the IG (CID), Mr P.V. Rathee, and the Superintendent of Police, Mr Balbir Singh, arrived at the CIA Staff office.
| Wrongful confinement |
Speaking to mediapersons, Mr Balbir Singh said a case was being registered on the basis of the video-clipping shown by the channel. “We are checking up our records to see if any minor was booked by the CIA Staff around the time the video was shot. Also, we are checking our staff deployment for those days and making inquiries from the staff now,” he said.
Maintaining that they had approached the channel to provide them a copy of the footage, the SP held that the guilty would be punished. “We can’t identify the man beating the boy, Mukesh, shown hanging from a tree with his hands tied at the back in the video. The child or his parents must come forward and help identify the culprit. If it is established that a policeman was guilty of the crime, a criminal case will be registered against him and departmental action initiated,” he stated.
Meanwhile, the family of Mukesh and two other boys, also allegedly subjected to torture by the CIA, have been shifted to a “safer” place by the channel. Apprehending trouble for the families, this morning the family members were “removed” from their jhuggis.
The video was shot at the CIA Staff Office behind the Mata Mansa Devi shrine by local lawyers Arvind Thakur, Hirday Pal Singh and Ravinder Pal Singh, also members of the Lawyers for Human Rights, an NGO .
“We had been receiving complaints about police staff atrocities in the area. We stumbled upon this evidence during a routine round of the police station. Then, another boy from the small jhuggi cluster was beaten up in a similar fashion. We have recorded that as well and will release it shortly,” Mr Thakur claimed.
He said for any theft, the police picked up minor boys and beat them up to “extract” a confession and then registered an FIR. “Contrary to set procedures of first registering an FIR and then proceeding to arrest the accused, the Haryana police operates rather differently. It’s a callous force, evident from the treatment meted out to the children. Their only fault is that they come from poor families and can’t raise a voice,” he held.
“We approached the top brass of the police, the Haryana Government and even the local authorities to bring the culprits to book. However, none of these agencies took me seriously and seemed completely disinterested in our evidence. We had no alternative but to turn to the media,” the lawyers said.
They also alleged that the minor boys were sodomised by the CIA Staff during the illegal detentions. “We are not satisfied by a plain inquiry being marked into the matter. We want the suspension of the police post in charge at that time. We will also move court to get justice for the boys and their families,” he held.
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