Lawyer’s ‘custodial torture’, ‘unnatural offence’: Muktsar SP among 6 cops booked; HC lawyers to suspend work today
Police have named the Muktsar chief judicial magistrate (CJM) Raj Pal Raw as a complainant in the crime
Muktsar police on Monday night booked six cops, including a superintendent of police, on charges of subjecting an advocate to unnatural sex, custodial torture and criminal intimidation.
The first information report (FIR) was registered at Sadar police station against SP (investigation) Ramandeep Bhullar, CIA in-charge Inspector Raman Kumar Kamboj, constables Harbans Singh, Bhupinder Singh, Gurpreet Singh and Home Guards jawan Dara Singh.
Police have named the Muktsar chief judicial magistrate (CJM) Raj Pal Raw as a complainant in the crime.
The police action came on a day when the Bar Council of Punjab and Haryana (BCPH) exhorted all the Bar associations in two states and Chandigarh to suspend work on Tuesday in protest against alleged torture of a lawyer.
On September 14, two persons, including an advocate were arrested after CIA in-charge inspector Raman Kumar Kamboj lodged a complaint at the Muktsar City police station, alleging that the duo had assaulted a police team, tore their uniforms and deterred them from discharging public duty on the Tibbi Sahib road in Muktsar.
According to the Bar body, the lawyer in question was allegedly made to indulge in unnatural sex with a co-accused by the officers in police custody and was beaten up upon arrest on night of September 14. He got his statement recorded before the court on September 22. Seven cops, including an SP-level officer and a DSP, were named by the lawyer in his statement before the court. The medical record had shown injuries to him.
As per the FIR, on September 22, the CJM took cognisance of the victim advocate’s statement and ordered the Muktsar police administration to book cops for various offences and initiate a probe.
The cops have been booked under IPC sections 377 (unnatural sex), 342 (wrongful confinement), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 149 (unlawful assembly) and 506 (criminal intimidation).
The Bar council has urged the Punjab government that the probe be given to an agency outside the state. Other demands include cancellation of the FIR registered against the lawyer and suspension of the Muktsar SSP.