Insensitivity of city police has come to the fore once again. HSR Layout police refused to take a complaint from an ‘assaulted’ woman on Monday night. Citing ‘jurisdictional issues’, they asked her to go to Madiwala police station to lodge a complaint.
Narrating how the incident unfolded, the 22-year-old woman said she was sexually assaulted when she was returning on her scooter after dinner. A motorcycle-borne man followed her for more than a kilometre and even tried to push her off her vehicle and sexually assaulted her. “First he tried to push me. When I did not fall, he groped me and I was shaken,” she said.
The man had concealed his face with a handkerchief and the incident took place near the BDA complex in HSR layout, barely 200 metres from her house.
The woman also said that when she cried out for help, another motorist tried to chase the man who had assaulted her, but in vain. Then she returned home and went to HSR Layout police station with her father to register a complaint. The police officer on duty allegedly said that the place where the incident took place did not come under their jurisdiction. So, they should file a complaint at the Madiwala police station.
When the woman continued to insist that the complaint should be taken, HSR Layout police took her address and promised to send a message to the Madiwala police station.
As it was too late in the night, the woman and her father did not go to Madiwala police station.
Then, on Tuesday they contacted Deputy Commissioner of Police (South East Zone) Rohini Sepat.
Following this, they went to the Madiwala police station and filed the complaint. In the complaint she also mentioned that the HSR Layout police had refused to take her complaint when she approached them.
The alleged incident has taken place though the Supreme Court guidelines state that the police station which receives the complaint should register a case and then transfer it to the jurisdictional police station.
Police Commissioner M.N. Reddi told The Hindu : “I will take action against those who did not take the woman’s complaint.”
