Delhi: Girl says harassed by cops in park, police have different version

NEW DELHI: An 18-year-old girl out for a walk with her male friend has alleged that they were harassed by policemen at a park in Krishna Nagar in east Delhi and her friend was beaten up by the cops.
However, Delhi Police rebutted her allegations, claiming that the police had gone to the park after receiving a complaint from a man who claimed to have had an altercation with the two after they allegedly brushed past each other during the walk.
The incident happened around 8.30pm on Thursday. However, no complaint was lodged by either the girl or her friend. The man who had called the cops also didn’t file any complaint.
The local police had, however, recorded the incident in their daily diary register around 11pm that day. The girl posted her version of the incident through a video on Instagram and Twitter at 6.30 pm on Friday. She said she filed a complaint on Saturday evening. The police said that the man who had called them had also filed a complaint and they were looking into it.
In her video message and while speaking to TOI, the girl said they were grabbed by a man while taking a walk in the park. This man then called some policemen who allegedly abused the girl and hit her friend with lathis.
“The cops questioned us about being out late. Around four to five cops thrashed my friend and harassed us,” the girl told TOI. “They were asking us to come to the police station but no woman officer was called in or was present. When I questioned them for not wearing their badges, they threatened me instead.”
She said after the man allegedly grabbed them, they tried to free themselves and struggled. “Then the cops came one by one and thrashed my friend. When I tried to intervene, they hit me too. They later started telling my friend’s parents that we were the ones who were fighting with some stranger which was not the case,” she claimed.
The police statement said that a constable was on evening patrol at Lal Quarter Market in Krishna Nagar on September 3 when a man approached him complaining about a couple having assaulted him because they had collided while walking in the park. The constable then went to the park. “The couple then started arguing with and abusing the constable and even pushed him several times,” the police said. He then called his superior, a head constable, to the spot.
“The couple continued to hurl abuses and were physically engaging with the staff too. The lady in fact was the main aggressor as she used unparliamentary language and even threatened the police staff by claiming that she will file a false complaint against them,” said the police statement.
Only after the boy called his father to the spot and he apologised for his son’s behaviour did the matter end, claimed the police. The father cited his young age and his studies as a Class XII student.
“We are at the police station and we are also giving a complaint to the police. I don’t even know who this other man is. We were harassed and now we are being blamed as well,” said the girl on Saturday night.