The Delhi Commission for Women has issued a notice to the Police Commissioner seeking an explanation for alleged misbehaviour by policemen with some female students who were staging a protest on Sunday.
The DCW was reacting to a photograph in a newspaper which showed a male police officer holding a female protester in a seemingly objectionable manner.
“I have received a complaint from a girl regarding alleged groping and physical abuse by a police officer during a peaceful protest for missing JNU student Najeeb Ahmed at India Gate. A picture which clearly shows a policeman groping her was displayed today (on Monday) in the newspaper,” DCW chief Swati Maliwal said in her letter to the police chief.
“The complainant has also informed the commission that there were no women police personnel deputed there and when the girl students objected to this, the policemen abused them, passed sexist comments and forcefully dragged the girls to a bus which too did not have any female police person,” she added.
Seek explanation in 3 days
The women’s body has asked the top cop to give an explanation within three days about the reasons for the use of force on protesting students, including the complainant and the mother of Najeeb.
Responding to the controversy created by the photograph, the Delhi Police said it has the “highest regards” for women during their day-to-day operations.
“We always ensure adequate deployment of female police personnel during law and order arrangements,” said Dependra Pathak, Joint CP (South-Western Range).
He said that while a probe has been ordered into the incident, the photograph of a “particular moment” had the potential of being “deceptive”. “All the police personnel are strictly briefed about guidelines pertaining to modesty of women. One picture can’t be indicative of the police being insensitive,” he said.
Explaining his statement, the officer said that “often during protests, women protesters cover their male counterparts from the police”. “In that melee, if a policeman is trying to catch hold of a male protester to remove him from the protest site, he could end up in “postures” that could show him as insensitive even if that may not really be the case.”
Mr. Pathak claimed that on Sunday, the students had gathered at four-five different places and were all moving towards India Gate.
“We had to prevent them from moving towards India Gate for obvious security reasons, and we had deployed adequate female police staff at all these points,” he insisted.
