The Vidisha Police have divested a Sub-Inspector of important duties (line-attached) and launched an inquiry into the alleged thrashing of a man, a suspect in a kidnapping case, by personnel at a police station on June 4, in yet another instance of police thrashing during the lockdown in Madhya Pradesh.
In line-attachment, an official is temporarily transferred to a lower unit, out of the station, so that he or she do not influence the investigation.
“We are totally against such behaviour,” said Vinayak Verma, district Superintendent of Police. The Additional Superintendent will conduct the inquiry into the incident and submit a report within a week. “It is yet to be established whether the man was present at the Sironj Police Station in the first place when the alleged incident took place.”
The reported victim, Santosh Vanshkar, a labourer, was named by a family in a police complaint relating to their missing daughter based on which a case was registered and he was named, said Rajesh Sinha, in-charge of the police station. “He complained to the police later about the reported thrashing, based on which the official has been line-attached,”" said Mr. Sinha.
Meanwhile, the Madhya Pradesh Human Rights Commission took suo motu cognisance of the incident on June 8 directing Mr. Verma to submit a report by July 10.
Referring to news reports, the Commission pointed out: “the police thrashed him with belts and pipes so severely that even now parts of his body are sore and his two fingers broken”.
The Commission has asked the police if Mr. Vanshkar was called to the Sironj Police Station on June 4 and kept inside a lockup there on the intervening night of June 4 and 5. Further, it asked for what crime the case registered against him pertained to, and which date he was arrested on and when his medical examination was conducted, among other queries.
