Noida cop suspended for demanding bribe to free man from custody

The man, identified as Saurabh Chauhan, 25, was detained on Tuesday on suspicion of “kidnapping” a 24-year-old woman

A Noida police constable was suspended on Tuesday after a video of him asking for a bribe from the family members of a man detained at the Sector 20 police station was shared on social media, according to police officers familiar with the matter.

After a video surfaced showing constable Mukesh Rathore of the Sector 20 police station requesting a bribe from Saurabh Chauhan’s family members, senior police officers suspended him. (Representational Image)

The man, identified as Saurabh Chauhan, 25, was detained on Tuesday on suspicion of “kidnapping” a 24-year-old woman from her home in Sector 20.

“After their daughter went missing on August 2, the woman’s family filed a missing person’s complaint. On August 8, the missing woman returned home, and her father informed the local police. He suspected Chauhan was responsible for his daughter’s disappearance, and Chauhan was detained as a result. There was a fight at the police station between the woman’s father and Chauhan, and as a preventive measure, Chauhan was booked under Section 151 of the Code of Criminal Procedure and sent to jail after being produced before a magistrate,” said an official statement from the Gautam Budh Nagar police’s media cell.

However, Chauhan’s family claimed that he was illegally detained.

“Chauhan had gone on vacation with the woman, while her family filed a missing person complaint in Noida. When they returned on Tuesday, they were detained by the police. At the police station, the woman said that as an adult, she could go wherever she wanted and that no one had forced her to go. On Tuesday, the woman’s family also withdrew their complaint. Still, police detained Chauhan and demanded a bribe from his family,” said Amit Tulsan, a relative of Chauhan who lives in Sector 12. He added that Chauhan and the woman are “online friends.”

After a video surfaced showing constable Mukesh Rathore of the Sector 20 police station requesting a bribe from Chauhan’s family members, senior police officers suspended him.

“Constable Rathore was suspended immediately, and the matter is being investigated internally,” said Harish Chander, deputy commissioner of police, Noida.

Meanwhile, the woman’s father, Manoj Porwal, denied the police’s claim that Chauhan was detained for “fighting with the woman’s family members.” “We never fought Chauhan and have nothing to do with this case anymore,” Porwal told HT, adding that the family has withdrawn the missing person complaint against Chauhan.

“There was some miscommunication with our daughter, and while we had previously suspected that Chauhan had forced her disappearance, our daughter told us that she had gone on her own volition,” said Porwal, who owns a restaurant in Sector 20.

“Chauhan has been booked under a fake case by the police, even though the woman’s family has taken back the complaint and there was no fight with them,” said Tulsan.

When asked, DCP Chander said, “An internal inquiry has been launched in the matter under the supervision of assistant commissioner of police-1.”