Fact-finding team to probe Haryana IPS allegations; Congress MLA Vinesh Phogat in support of the complainants

Probe into sexual exploitation allegations against Haryana IPS officer by fact-finding team, interviewing 40 women police personnel

Conducting probe into allegations of sexual exploitation against an IPS officer posted as Superintendent of Police in one of Haryana districts, the fact-finding team, tasked with the identification of the complainants, has interviewed 40-odd women police personnel so far, including several namesakes of the seven complainants.

Superintendent of Police, Fatehabad, Astha Modi, holding the probe into the allegations, told The Hindu over the phone that there were 142 women police personnel posted in the district in question and she had spoken to around 40 of them in length to identify the complainants.

Ms. Modi said that no First Information Report was registered in the case since the complainants had used the pseudonyms and her mandate was to identify them, if they existed. She, however, refused to comment on the findings.

Ms. Modi said there were two versions of the four-page complaint doing rounds on the social media platforms – one bearing the names of seven police personnel and the other without their names.

Haryana State Commission for Women, Chairperson, Renu Bhatia said the panel had summoned the investigating officer at Faridabad on Tuesday to seek progress report into the matter. Ms. Bhatia said the IPS office facing the allegations too was summoned to know his version on the complaint against him.

In the complaint addressed to the Chief Minister, which had gone viral on the social media over the weekend, one of the women police personnel deployed in the said district, alleged that the SP of the district, in connivance with a woman Station House Officer and a woman Deputy Superintendent of Police, had been sexually exploiting the women police personnel in return for the promise to promote them. The complainant alleged that adverse remarks were made in the Annual Confidential Reports of those refusing to succumb to pressure.

The complainant also accused the IPS officer and the women police officers of running an extortion racket and implicating the rich people into rape cases in connivance with a gang of women, who too were allegedly sexually exploited by the said male officer.

Coming out in support of the complainants, wrestler-turned-politician and Congress’ Julana MLA Vinesh Phogat, in a press conference at the party office in Delhi on Monday, said she was just a phone call away from them if there were any attempts to muffle their voice and assured to take their fight to the logical end. She said that she had been through this pain during the wrestlers protest and knew very well as to how the voices were suppressed.

Published - October 29, 2024 11:51 am IST