Punjab police and the woman have offered very divergent accounts of the bizarre episode, which took place in a village near Amritsar earlier this week.
Chandigarh: A 35-year-old woman seen falling off the roof of a speeding police jeep near Amritsar in a viral video has been booked for attempt to murder along with six members of her family.
How Jaswinder Kaur got on top of the vehicle remains disputed, but the video has left viewers grappling with a disturbing question: How could police personnel drive a vehicle at speed when they knew there was a woman, by their own account untethered, on the roof?
The woman has alleged that police personnel tied her atop their jeep and drove her through her village before she fell off at a sharp turn and fractured her wrist.
Police say the woman and her family had threatened to burn the team alive when they arrived at their house in search of her father-in-law.
They claim she voluntarily climbed the jeep, and that they only drove off when she refused to get down and the crowd began to get aggressive towards them.
Also read: Man seen beating woman in call centre in a viral video arrested by Delhi Police
Two days since the bizarre episode, the world is none the wiser about what actually happened Tuesday morning at village Sehjada in Kathunangal, 20 kilometres from Amritsar.
However, while police have booked Kaur and six of her family members for attempt to murder over their alleged attack on them, no investigation has been initiated into the conduct of the personnel involved.
Breaking: Punjab police has booked the woman (who is seen being driven by the cops atop a police vehicle) and her entire family for attempt to murder.
The police say that her family attacked them when they went to arrest her father-in-law yesterday for a 2017 case. pic.twitter.com/96kEQx4pCO
— Chitleen K Sethi (@ChitleenKSethi) September 26, 2018
What really happened?
Some facts are clear: A police team arrived at Kaur’s house on Tuesday morning to arrest her father-in-law, Balwant Singh, in a case filed last March over the ownership of a brick kiln. He wasn’t home.
A fracas ensued, and it is at this point that divergence creeps into the two accounts.
According to Kaur, the police team got upset when they did not find Balwant. She said they decided to take her to the police station instead to “pressure” her father-in-law to surrender, and tied her atop the jeep with ropes. She said she was then driven through the village to humiliate her.
She told a news agency that she fractured her wrist when she fell off the jeep at a sharp turn. And here the narratives briefly converge again.
Footage from a CCTV camera shows this part of the incident – Kaur falling off the jeep’s roof as the vehicle makes a sharp turn, and immediately running away.
The video went viral Wednesday, bringing the case to public notice.
Police say the family attacked a team from the state bureau of investigation when they went to their house to arrest Balwant.
“When the police team of around 10 men reached their house, the family was already gathered outside along with 10 unknown people,” said Tejinder Maur, additional inspector general for crime, Amritsar, whose team conducted the raid.
“The woman, Jaswinder Kaur, climbed the police vehicle on her own. In fact, our men asked her to get down, but when the family became very aggressive, our teams thought it wise to leave,” he added.
“The driver rushed to get the team away from the spot and the woman, who was refusing to get off the vehicle, was driven along,” Maur said.
“She fell off the vehicle later. She was not tied. In fact, she had a brick in her hand and broke the rear windshield of the jeep,” he added.
Investigation on
Police said that they had also visited the homes of two others wanted along with Balwant, in two nearby villages. “When the accused was not found, we left. There is no question of our teams indulging in any inhuman treatment in this (Kaur’s) house,” said Maur.
Police have now booked Kaur, currently in hospital, and six others, including her husband, brother-in-law and sister-in-law, for attempt to murder, as well as rioting with weapons and unlawful assembly.
Also read: Jalandhar bishop who ‘raped’ Kerala nun wields great influence over Punjab’s Christians
Additional director general of police (ADGP) Prabodh Kumar, the director of the bureau of investigation, said action, if any, will follow an investigation into the FIR.