The Delhi high court has directed the city police to conduct an inquiry into the allegations made by a woman undertrial that she was beaten up and detained by the police on false charges and then sexually assaulted by a policeman while in illegal police custody.
According to the prosecution, the woman, a mother of seven and a resident of Damoi district in Madhya Pradesh, was picked up by the police from the Nizamuddin Railway Station here on December 27 last year when she arrived to meet her daughter and son-in-law.
The police accused the woman of kidnapping the five-year-old girl accompanying her, though the child was her own granddaughter.
The woman alleged that she was beaten up by at least seven policemen for much over two hours and then taken in police custody and an FIR was filed against her by the police on charges of kidnapping.
The victim’s counsel said that a policeman named Shankar forced the woman to remove her clothes despite the chilly weather and sexually assaulted her.
She was illegally detained in police custody for five days before being sent to judicial custody on February 2, he said. The victim is now in Tihar Jail in connection with the alleged false case of kidnapping against her.
Justice Kailash Gambhir directed the DCP (South Delhi) to file a status report dealing with all the contentions raised by the woman. In the order dated January 28, the court also directed the Delhi government to submit the reports of the medical examination conducted on the victim while she was in jail.
The court also directed the trial court, which had earlier granted bail to the woman, to release her upon furnishing a personal bond as she does not have the means to furnish any surety. The matter will now be heard on February 22.