New Delhi: Renu Bhatia, chairperson of Haryana State Commission For Women, has spoken out about a heated exchange between her and a woman police officer over an investigation involving a marital dispute case.
The incident, which has created a stir on social media, took place Friday in Kaithal and ended with Bhatia asking the officer to “get out” of the room.
The case in question involves a dispute between a man who wanted to leave his wife on the grounds that she was not “physically fit” despite his wife claiming that he had no valid reason to seek separation. The commission ordered the police to conduct a medical test of both the husband and wife, however, according to Bhatia, the officer took the couple to a hospital but “only the girl was tested and not the boy”.
Bhatia said that the commission was holding a “hearing session” Friday and that the officer in question, who was the investigating officer (IO) in the case, was not supposed to attend the hearing. The IO could have been involved in a “conspiracy” with one of the parties in the case, Bhatia said.
“I asked her why she was there. You [IO] have been told not to attend our hearing session because you are not doing the case properly. We will give this case to some other officer,” Bhatia told ThePrint, adding that the officer “started yelling in front of 34 other officers”.
“What conspiracy she was doing, we don’t know,” Bhatia said.
In a video of the heated exchange, Bhatia can be heard shouting at the woman officer: “You should have given him [husband] two slaps. You got the girl’s [medical] test done thrice but not even one test for the man.”
As the woman police officer tries to respond, Bhatia tells her to “get out” of the room, adding that there will be a “departmental inquiry” against her.
“I don’t want to hear anything, don’t answer back,” Bhatia can then be heard saying.
Bhatia can then be seen telling a Station House Officer (SHO) to escort the officer out. As she was being taken away by the SHO, the woman officer can be heard saying, “we are not here to get ourselves insulted.”
According to Bhatia, the woman officer claimed during the ‘hearing’ that the husband was refusing to come for the medical test and that she could not have forced him to do so.
“She [IO] should have conducted the medical test if the commission has given the orders. You [IO] are not conducting it. Then that means there is some conspiracy,” Bhatia told ThePrint Saturday.
She added, “Even when the case had earlier come to the police station before coming to the commission, this [investigating] officer had only done a medical test of the woman and not of the man.”
Bhatia said the Kaithal Superintendent of Police (SP) should take cognizance of the incident and the commission has ordered that the woman officer “be suspended for yelling in front of the whole staff”
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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