Fear of the police aside, even countrywide protests failed to deter four men in Mallan village of Muktsar district from harassing a woman, that too a police constable, and then beating up her male colleague who came to her rescue.
A case has been registered on charges of eve-teasing, assault and disrupting a government servant’s work, at the Kot Bhai police station; but no arrests have been made so far.

The shameful incident happened in the presence of around 500 people, during the taping of musical show by Doordarshan on the grounds of a government school in Mallan. Amandeep, Harjinder and at least two other unidentified men from the village passed lewd remarks towards a woman constable deployed to ensure safety of female spectators. She reported the matter to her senior, assistant sub-inspector (ASI) Ram Singh, who intervened; but the men thrashed him and fled.

Though the police refused to divulge further details fearing embarrassment, sources said some relatives of the accused had been detained.

The shameful incident, which happened in the chief minister’s home district, comes close on the heels of the December 5 murder of an ASI, who was allegedly shot dead in Amritsar after he objected to harassment of his daughter by a since-expelled leader of the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD).

The village falls in Congress MLA Amarinder Singh Raja Warring’s constituency, Gidderbaha, but he blamed it on the ruling party. “Every criminal knows that the police work under the SAD leaders appointed as halqa (constituency) in-charges.”