Judge Rescues Illegally Detained Woman From Bengal Police Station

A woman Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate of Nadia District in West Bengal on Wednesday single handedly rescued a 22 year old woman from a Bengal Police Station, where she had been illegally detained for five days.

ACJM Ms. Sanghamitra Poddar was hearing a complaint filed by the girl’s father, Mr. Godinda Biswas, who had alleged that the cops had picked up his daughter on the morning of December 23, and were illegally holding her at the police station for five days without a charge. He further brought to the notice of the Court that the girl’s presence was not recorded, and that she was not even produced before a Court.

“Over the past four days, I regularly visited the police station to know the fault of my daughter, but got no answer. Some policemen demanded money for her release. Finding no other option, I submitted a petition before the court,” Mr. Biswas was quoted as saying.

Ms. Poddar then barged into Hanskhali Police Station near the Bangladesh border, brought her to her court, and sent her to the custody of a government home.

Police Sources were quoted as saying that on reaching the Station, OC Anindya Bose failed to explain the reason behind the detention. The ACJM then examined the general diary and the FIR register at the police station but found no entry on the woman.

The police personnel had apparently acted on a tip-off about the “suspicious movements of a Hindi-speaking young woman who had taken shelter in Biswas’s house”.

Hanskhali OC Bose reportedly said, “We had information about the girl. So we brought her to the police station for interrogation. But, neither she nor the person with whom she had been staying could satisfactorily prove her identity. The girl could only tell us her name but could not give her surname. She told us she stayed in the Saket area of Delhi.”

“She also told us that Govinda was not her father. There was no complaint against her. However, several inconsistencies in her statement during the interrogation compelled us to seek more information on her from Delhi police. We were actually waiting for that report and decided to keep her at the police station for the sake of her security.”

Image from here.

This article has been made possible because of financial support from Independent and Public-Spirited Media Foundation.