Suspended Punjab cop Ashish Kapoor booked for assaulting woman in police custody
Motia Group director Hemraj Mittal and one Lovelish Garg of Dhakoli have also been booked on the complaint of the woman inmate. She alleged criminal conspiracy to illegally torture her and her family and recording their ordeal during their remand from May 9, 2018 to May 22, 2018, in the cheating case.
Months after a video of Punjab Police Service (PPS) officer Ashish Kapoor surfaced in which he was seen thrashing a woman inmate during her police remand in a cheating case at Zirakpur police station in May 2018, the local police on Monday booked him for assault and abuse.
Motia Group director Hemraj Mittal and one Lovelish Garg of Dhakoli have also been booked on the complaint of the woman inmate.
The trio has been booked under Sections 327 (voluntarily causing hurt to extort property, or to constrain to an illegal act), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 294 (sings, recites or utters any obscene song, ballad or words, in or near any public place), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of Indian Penal Code (IPC) at Zirakpur police station.
The complainant, who along with her family members, including mother, brother and sister-in-law, was held in 2018 in a cheating case, had sought FIR against Ashish Kapoor, his wife, investigating officer assistant sub-inspector Harinder Singh, deputy superintendent of police Samarpal Singh, DSP Pawan Kumar, then SHO of Zirakpur police station; DSP Tarlochan Singh, Hem Raj and others.
She alleged criminal conspiracy to illegally torture her and her family and recording their ordeal during their remand from May 9, 2018 to May 22, 2018, in the cheating case.
The complainant had further stated that Kapoor had threatened to implicate her in a false case. “Recently, a video had surfaced on social media wherein Ashish Kapoor was seen hitting me when I, along with my mother, brother and sister-in-law, was at the Zirakpur police station. Kapoor and DSP Samarpal had misused their official powers and assaulted us to make us confess about a property. Ashish threatened me that he would make sure that heavy recovery would be planted on me and my family,” the complainant told police.
She added that she and her family members were victims of illegal custodial torture, something that was evident in the video clip.
She added that DSP Pawan Kumar, DSP Tarlochan and DSP Samarpal were present at the spot at the time of illegal torture.
“Kapoor’s wife used to beat me at the Zirakpur police station and video call my husband who used to instigate the cops to beat me more as I was pursuing a divorce case. Hemraj also visited the police station once and assured AIG Kapoor that
he would give a statement in the favor of Lovelish Garg who was also a close aide of Kapoor”.
A senior police officer said, “We have booked the three persons including Ashish Kapoor. In case during investigation, the role of other persons, including the three DSPs, comes to the fore, we will nominate them in the case.”
The vigilance bureau in December, last year, submitted a chargesheet against Ashish Kapoor along with ASI Harvinder Singh, who were arrested in a ₹1 crore bribery case on October 6 in a local Mohali court.
During his posting as Amritsar central jail superintendent, in 2016, Kapoor had got acquainted with a woman inmate of Kurukshetra, who was on judicial remand in a case.