Chandigarh: Haryana DGP Manoj Yadav Sunday said strict action has been initiated against Inspector General of Police (IGP) Hemant Kalson, who was booked and arrested last evening for allegedly assaulting and abusing two women, one of them his cook, at their respective homes.
Two separate FIRs have been registered against the officer.
Kalson, currently posted as IG Home Guards, is already facing a departmental inquiry for firing in the air using a constable’s semi-automatic gun outside the Circuit House at Ariyalur in Tamil Nadu when he was on election duty during the Lok Sabha polls last year. An FIR was registered and he was suspended.
In 2018, Kalson was thrashed by onlookers after he slapped the driver of a vehicle in a road rage incident. Earlier this month, he was booked for allegedly abusing and harassing his woman neighbour.
During all these incidents, Kalson was said to be under the influence of liquor.
Talking to The Print, DGP Yadav said he is writing to the state government seeking strict action against the officer. “I cannot divulge what action we are recommending, but we are sending a report of these incidents and seeking very strict action,” Yadav said.
Kalson, another senior police officer said, is becoming a source of major embarrassment to the Haryana Police. “He could face dismissal from service under Article 311 of the Constitution,” he said.
What happened on Saturday night
According to one of the two FIRs, the 1992-batch IPS officer first tried to enter his cook’s house in her residential colony in Pinjore when he was physically stopped by the woman’s young daughter.
A video of the incident, shot by another family member of the woman, went viral shortly after the episode. In the purported video, the officer can be seen pulling up his T-shirt exposing his body and abusing the cook and hitting her. The cook then pushes the officer out of her house and bolts the door.
An FIR under sections 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt) and 452 (house-trespass) of the IPC was registered against Kalson on the statement of the cook. In the FIR, the woman has alleged that Kalson “bragged” that he was highly connected and knew the Haryana chief minister and Rajesh Khullar (principal secretary to the CM) and dared her to “do anything against him”.
Following this incident, the officer entered the house of another resident in the colony and allegedly started abusing the woman of the house when she opened the door. He was allegedly threatened to beat up her husband and threatened to get him “shot”.
He was allegedly reeking of alcohol, and when neighbours tried to intervene, he abused them as well. Another FIR under sections 323, 452, 509 (insulting the modesty of a woman) and 510 (misconduct in public by a drunken person) of the IPC was registered against him in this regard.
Residents of the area also held protests against the IGP. Kalson was arrested later and a local court sent him to judicial custody.
Last month, on July 27, Kalson was booked under Section 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the IPC after he abused a woman neighbour in an inebriated state. An inquiry in the matter is under way.
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