Three police personnel seen abusing and slapping woman suspended after video of incident becomes public.
New Delhi: The Uttar Pradesh police has suspended three police personnel after a video emerged on social media, showing a woman constable slapping and harassing a nursing student for “liking a Muslim”.
Questions are also being raised over the legality of police personnel revealing the identity of the victim.
The video, purportedly recorded by Meerut police head constable Salek Chand, shows constable Priyanka Singh slapping the woman, even as he can be heard cursing the girl for “liking a Muslim”.
Shocking video of the girl who was rescued by cops from Vishwa Hindu Parishad goons who were harassing a Meerut couple for Love Jihad. The cops after rescuing the girl began assaulting her in the police van calling her out for chosing Muslim partner and made video. @uppolice pic.twitter.com/l0eIPmJKnp
— Piyush Rai (@Benarasiyaa) September 25, 2018
The nursing student was being escorted in a police vehicle after she had been “rescued” from being attacked by alleged Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) activists.
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“Tujhe mullah zyaada pasand aa raha hai? (You like a Muslim more?)” Chand asks her even as he records her being harassed. “Hindu ke hote hue, tu b******d mulleh ka le rahi hai? Sharam nahi aa rahi (Weren’t any Hindus available that you were consorting with a Muslim? Aren’t you ashamed?)” he goes on.
The girl cries out for help, repeatedly asking “uncle” (the police constable) to stop.
Apart from Priyanka Singh and Chand, constable Neetu Singh and a member of the home guard, Shahensar Pal, were also in the police vehicle.
The three police constables involved in the case have been suspended and an inquiry has been announced, Meerut SP (city), Ranvijay Singh, told ThePrint.
“As soon as we received the video, we set up an inquiry. The three have been suspended and we have written to the home guards about the fourth person who is part of their ranks,” Singh told ThePrint.
“It is saddening that those who were supposed to rescue her are hitting her and using unparliamentary language,” Singh added.
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The case
The woman, a nursing student in Meerut, was allegedly dragged to a police station Sunday along with her partner by members of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad. The group accused the two, who are in their 20s, of “love-jihad” and took pictures of the couple.
The VHP members allegedly asked the police to file a case against the couple for “love-jihad”. “The two were sitting in a room in their college when people in the vicinity objected to it,” said Singh.
“We acted swiftly, took them in,” Singh added. However, no case was registered since the young man, who went for a preliminary medical check-up, didn’t push for a case. “We spoke to their parents, and let them go,” Singh said.