Bangalore cop suspended for mishandling handling sexual assault case

Mangalore Today News Network

Bangalore, July 17, 2014:  The Bangalore city police commissioner Raghavendra H Auradkar has placed a police inspector under suspension for failing to effectively handle the case of sexual assault of a 22-year-old post-graduation student in east Bangalore last week.

The police inspector Mohammed Rafique who tried to convince the victim of the sexual assault against filing a case and watered down the charges in the initial FIR filed at the Pulkeshinagar police station was placed under suspension by the commissioner for attempting to dilute the case.

The 22-year-old PG student was kidnapped and sexually assaulted on Thursday night by a gang lead by Nasir Hyder, 24, the son of a local BSP leader Sheikh Bahadur. The victim was with a male friend in a car outside her apartment complex when the youths from the same neighborhood approached them in the guise of policemen and forced the couple to drive around with them before Hyder sexually assaulted the young woman.
The police inspector at the Pulkeshinagar police station when approached by the girl on Friday initially did not register a case of rape despite the victim explaining her ordeal in detail. Rafique took up a case under weaker sections of the Indian Penal Code despite the amended rape law making a provision for bringing rape charges in sexual assault cases.

A senior police officer said that the police inspector also did not inform his higher ups about the incident.

Meanwhile, the police on Wednesday took Hyder into custody for further investigations. The relatives of one of the absconding accused in the case Imtiaz staged a protest against the Pulikeshinagar police outside the police station on Wednesday for naming him in the case.Relatives and friends of Imtiaz alleged that Hyder had named Imtiaz in the case to exact revenge for an old rivalry against him. “We are making efforts to nab all the absconding accused persons including Imtiaz. We will let him go if it is proven that he is innocent,” a senior police officer said.

Meanwhile, the victim met the police commissioner at his office on Wednesday and informed him that she was receiving threatening calls for filing the rape complaint. She also alleged that some persons who called her had accused her of being responsible for the suspension of police inspector Rafique.

The opposition BJP and JDS parties raised the issue in the on going assembly session on Wednesday and demanded the filing of a case against the police inspector for not handling the case properly. Speaker Kagodu Thimappa said that the Congress government needs to shunt out police officers who had become permanent fixtures in Bangalore for several years.