Panipat Superintendent of Police Manisha Choudhary has been booked for alleged abetment to suicide, along with two other policemen, of a former municipal councillor. The councillor had jumped into a canal last Thursday due to alleged police harassment and his body was fished out on Sunday.
Then Tehsil Camp Police Post in charge Baljit Malik and Assistant Sub-Inspector Mahabir Singh are the other two policemen named in the FIR.
According to the FIR, registered at the Model Town Police Station on Monday, Baljit and Mahabir pushed around the councillor on November 14 evening when he objected to them allegedly barging into his neighbour’s house and making videos. The two policemen were in an inebriated state and not accompanied by a woman police officer, said the FIR.
“I gave a written complaint to the Station House Officer concerned against the two policemen, but no action was taken. A case was registered against me and my father on 11 charges the next day. All this was done at the behest of SP Manisha Choudhary. We were treated like terrorists. For five days, the police kept pressure on us. My father was mentally harassed and he eventually jumped into the Binjhol canal on November 19 morning. His friend Rajesh Sharma also jumped behind him to save him,” said the councillor’s daughter, the complainant in the case.
The complaint was given to the police on November 19 but the FIR was lodged a day after the body of the councillor was recovered. The body of Rajesh Sharma was fished out earlier.
The family and supporters of the deceased blocked traffic on the NH-44 on Sunday, accusing the police of abetting his suicide, after the body was recovered.
Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij last week formed a three-member committee headed by ADGP Sandeep Khirwar to probe allegations of harassment by police.