Punjab Vigilance Bureau on Monday arrested a constable-rank Patiala Central Jail warder on the charges of accepting Rs 10,000 as bribe and seeking sexual favours from a widow (67) whose son is behind bars in a matrimonial dispute.
The money was for not torturing her son during his stay in jail, apart from letting the mother meet him. The misconduct of accused Manjit Singh (57) was caught in the security cameras that the vigilance bureau had planted at the house of the woman, whom the cop had allegedly started stalking on telephone.
“The footage and the recorded telephone conversation are enough to prove bad touch and advances. He was being inappropriate with her again when we walked into the house and caught him,” said Patiala range vigilance bureau senior superintendent of police (SSP) Pritam Singh.
“For failing to pay alimony to his wife, the woman’s son was sent to jail for a month. His mother got there next day and found Manjit Singh, who forced her to give him Rs 2,000 for a meeting and her contact number, too, on the pretext that it was for the jail visitors’ record. He further threatened to torture her son if she failed to pay another Rs 3.5 lakh, and finding her under pressure, started taking other liberties,” said the SSP.
“He first asked her to come to his house, and then he took cheese to her house and asked her to cook it. It’s the first embarrassing case of this kind,” said the SSP, adding that the cop was charged under Section 354 (outraging woman’s modesty) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and various sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act, and the bureau would ask for fast trial in the case.
{{/usCountry}}“He first asked her to come to his house, and then he took cheese to her house and asked her to cook it. It’s the first embarrassing case of this kind,” said the SSP, adding that the cop was charged under Section 354 (outraging woman’s modesty) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and various sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act, and the bureau would ask for fast trial in the case.
{{/usCountry}}Deputy inspector general (prisons) LS Jakhar said: “All I can say is that it’s shocking, and promise you strict action.”