The video also shows the UP police officer, a DSP who has since retired, asking the couple about the nature of their relationship.
New Delhi: A video of a police officer pounding a young man and woman with a stick has brought Uttar Pradesh police under the scanner once again for brutality. The victims were reportedly an inter-faith couple.
In the clip, which went viral Saturday, the police officer is seen thrashing the couple with a stick after taking them into custody. The officer has been identified as deputy superintendent of police (railways) Ashok Kumar Dixit, and the incident reportedly took place on 12 October at the government railway police (GRP) station in Saharanpur.
A video of UP police DSP Ashok Kumar Dixit torturing a Muslim couple inside GRP station premises has gone viral. DSP Dixit is seen assaulting the couple with lathi and abusing the couple inside the police station premises. pic.twitter.com/SULqJNWvfe
— Piyush Rai (@Benarasiyaa) November 3, 2018
Although neither of the victims has registered a complaint against the officer, assistant director general of police (railways) Sanjay Singhla has reportedly taken cognisance of the attack. An inquiry committee headed by superintendent of police Moradabad Subhash Chandra Dubey has been set up to look into the video.
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“As soon as the incident came to our notice, we started our investigation,” Dubey told ThePrint. “We will be closely inspecting the audio and the video,” he added.
However, Dubey also claimed that Dixit was retired. “He’s a retired officer,” he said, “There is no such person in the GRP station at present. We are investigating what exactly happened.”
Speaking to ThePrint, the incumbent DSP at the Saharanpur GRP station S.K. Singh said Dixit retired on 31 October. “I have take over since,” he added.
The video
The video shows the young couple being escorted into a room at the police station, where Dixit, not in uniform, orders the woman to sit down on one side as a colleague hands him a stick.
The girl, dressed in a burqa, whimpers and cowers under Dixit’s aggression, and says she and the boy were out for a trip. Dixit, however, continues to interrogate her. “Are you his wife? Do you have sambandh (relations) with him?” he asks.
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In another clip, as he batters the couple, Dixit is seen asking for a bigger lathi.
“If she is your wife, then, OK, go,” Dixit is heard saying, taking a swipe at the man. “If she’s not your wife, you lied to me that she is,” he adds.
“Tere gande rishte hai iske saath? Yeh mujh se keh rahi hai, m*******d, ki unhone kya bataya hai ki main kaun hoon (Do you have a sexual relationship with her? She asked me to tell her how you described the relationship),” says Dixit.
“Hawalat mein daal inhe (throw them into jail),” he then says.
Not the first time
The UP police suspended three police personnel in September after a video on social media showed a woman constable slapping and harassing a nursing student for “liking a Muslim”.
The video, purportedly recorded by Meerut police head constable Salek Chand, shows constable Priyanka Singh slapping the woman as the person shooting the video is heard cursing her.
However, none of the accused has been arrested yet, or booked. They were instead transferred to Gorakhpur a week after the incident came to light.