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Prodded by court, Bihar government files case against policemen

The Bihar government on Saturday ordered immediate institution of a case against some Jehanabad policemen against whom the women of Senari village filed complaints for allegedly subjecting them to assault and torture. The incident happened, according to the women, when a group of policemen went to Senari to arrest some of the accused in the Miapur massacre, which occurred last month.

The government order followed a direction by the Patna High Court on Saturday to the Jehanabad district judge to set up a team of judicial officers to probe the complaints and submit a report on or before August seven.

The court took serious exception to the alleged assault on the women. Though it was a holiday, a division bench comprising Chief Justice R S Dhawan and Justice Aftab Alam held a special sitting after going through a report in a local Hindi daily and issued the order suo moto.

The judges in their ruling asked the state advocate general to give a detailed account of the incident after consulting the home commissioner, director-general of police, district magistrate and the police superintendent of Jehanabad. They said the court was dismayed to read a news report on the front page of a local Hindi daily about the alleged assault on women by the police at Senari.

Addressing a joint press conference with state Director General of Police K A Jacob, Home Secretary U N Panjiar said that an accused, Bam Singh, in his confessional statement before the police, admitted that the massacre was planned at Senari village under Karpi police station in Jehanabad.

Bam Singh had admitted that seven of the accused belonged to Senari and, therefore, the police decided to search some houses in the village where 34 people were slaughtered by banned Maoist Communist Centre extremists last year.

According, a police team went to Senari on July 27. However, angry villagers tried to bloc their entry into the village, throwing stones and brickbats on them. Two policemen were injured in the incident.

Panjiar said the police had used lathis to disperse the crowd, which resulted in injuries to some villagers. The injured were treated at the Sadar hospital in Jehanabd.

He said that some women later recorded statements with the police that they were badly tortured and assaulted by policemen during the raids.

Since the case related to atrocities on women, the police took cognisance of the allegations and Jacob ordered immediate institution of cases against some policemen whose names figured in the complaints.

Panjiar said the case had been registered with the Karpi police station and, simultaneously, the commissioner and deputy inspector-general of police, Magadh Range, have been asked to inquire into the complaints.

He said that the state Crime Investigation Department would be asked to take over the case for a thorough investigation to bring the guilty policemen to book.

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