The Tribune, January 6, 2004

Destitute woman beaten up by policemen
Bijendra Ahlawat
Tribune News Service

Faridabad, January 5
While the police department in the district as well as in the state may be claiming success in the month-long ‘sadbhawana campaign’, which ended recently, the cops on the other hand seem not to have learnt any lesson regarding their behaviour and handling delicate matters involving human angle. A destitute woman, recovered by an NGO, was allegedly beaten up by the policemen at Palwal recently.

According to information, a 20-year-old woman, hailing from Madhya Pradesh, who had perhaps strayed into the state due to mental illness, was taken to a police station by the volunteers of Shakti Vahini, an NGO here, for sending her to the Nari Niketan. But, it is learnt that the cops on duty, despite by the directions by a senior police officers, beat the woman in the station. The woman, who could not be identified, was accompanied by her six-month-old baby girl. The woman said that she had come from Madhya Pradesh by a train and got down at Asawati railway station. It is learnt that she walked into a house and could not respond well when enquired about her identity and whereabouts by the local villagers. The matter was taken by the NGO, which sought the police help to send her to the Nari Niketan. According to a spokesman of the NGO, the cops beat the women in front of them despite having the required information. While it is now learnt that the woman has been sent to the Nari Niketan, it is reported that this has been the second incident of this kind in the state.

The police had recovered a young Muslim woman from a village in the Bhiwani district recently, who also confessed the police that she had come from Madhya Pradesh and wanted to settle here due to some personal problem. “Since the authorities had sent her in the PGIMS Rohtak for check-up and treatment, such incidents call for proper handling and posting of more women constables at various police stations,” claims the NGO. It has also demanded an action against the cops who beat up the women.