A 39-year-old man working with a retail brand, from whose car Rs.25 lakh and a laptop were stolen after he met with an accident near Naraina flyover here on January 8, was allegedly stripped and mentally tortured by some policemen at the Kirti Nagar police station this past Monday in an attempt to extract a confession from him. The victim suffers from high blood pressure.
The case has now been transferred to the District Investigation Unit and an inquiry initiated by the public grievance cell into the allegations.
Harmeet Pal Singh was on his way to deposit Rs.27.5 lakh in cash, of which Rs.2.5 lakh was in his jacket’s pocket and the rest in a cardboard carton, collected from his office to a bank in Rajouri Garden when he fell unconscious and his car rammed the road divider on January 8. A Police Control Room van took him to DDU Hospital and the vehicle was towed away to the area police station.
When Mr. Singh regained consciousness, the policemen handed him over only Rs.2.5 lakh and expressed ignorance about the rest of the cash and a laptop bag kept in the car’s back seat. The local police also said there was no such carton or bag in the car. Subsequently, the complainant got a case registered.
After being discharged, Mr. Singh’s blood pressure shot up and he had to be admitted again at Mata Chanan Devi Hospital where he remained for two days. He alleged that one Sub-Inspector Nathu Lal Yadav met him at the hospital and asked him to visit the police station after being discharged and also allegedly threatened to accept that he had committed the theft.
Mr. Singh reported at the police station around 5 p.m. on January 14 along with his sister and wife. “We accompanied him to a room on the first floor from where we were soon asked to leave. We were at the reception desk, but a woman staffer forced us out of the station,” said Mr. Singh’s sister Kulpreet Kaur.
“Six hours had elapsed and there was no word about him. We were under tremendous stress, but then around 11 p.m. some incident took place and policemen rushed out of the station, giving us an opportunity to look for my brother and give him his medicine. We did not find him in the same room,” she said.They finally found him sitting in a room corner, terrorised. “Although he had his clothes on, but his undergarments and warmers were lying nearby. He then told us that the policemen stripped him and forced him to lay on the floor naked for three hours. They wanted to extract a confession out of my brother,” alleged Ms. Kaur, adding that it was only after the area Additional Commissioner of Police and the Assistant Commissioner of Police intervened that he was allowed to go.
