Allahabad: The Allahabad High Court has observed that the plea filed by a former Army officer accusing police officials in Pilibhit of abusing and humiliating him ‘prima facie, shows a very sorry state of affairs and police atrocities.’
‘The matter is serious and requires a serious consideration by this Court,’ said a bench of Justices Surya Prakash Kesarwani and Gautam Chowdhary on Thursday. The court ordered the Uttar Pradesh Director General of Police (DGP) to produce a personal counter-affidavit detailing the actions taken in the case. The case has been set for a hearing on July 7.
Former Army officer Resham Singh (41) filed a plea with the court alleging that on May 3, police tortured him while humiliating and harassing his mother and two sisters.
According to the petition, the incident occurred as he was travelling to Lakhimpur Kheri with his mother and sisters following the death of his brother-in-law Karam Jeet Singh. Police halted Singh’s automobile about 9 am in Pilibhit’s Puranpur district, according to his lawyer, who claims Singh served in the Army for 15 years. They demanded the vehicle’s paperwork.
When the former Army soldier went to get his documents, police authorities started assaulting the victim and his family members, including his mother and two sisters out of nowhere. The petitioner said that he was a retired service member to the officers.
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According to the petition, ‘the police officials who were involved were Inspector Ram Naresh Singh, Inspector Raees Ahmed and 05-06 unknown Police Constables who can be identified by the victim.’
A video clip showing the police officials beating the victim is going rounds on social media.
Allegedly, the Police Officials also started beating the mother and sisters of the Victim and took them to the police station without taking the assistance of any woman Police officer, where Resham ‘was disrobed and then tied up on a cot and brutally beaten up by the said police officials for two continuous hours using Dandas.’
Furthermore, it was said that the Police Officials did not stop at torturing the Victim physically, but that in order to further humiliate him, they threatened to chop his unshorn hair in order to teach him a life lesson.
The police, according to the retired Army soldier, went above all bounds when they inserted a Danda/Lathi inside the victim’s anus/rectum with the purpose of humiliating him, crushing his self-respect, and scarring the victim for life.
At the hearing, the court said the case prima facie ‘indicates a breach of fundamental rights of the petitioner guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution of India.’
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