SI shares image of SHO’s chat with woman, suspended

Greater Noida: A sub-inspector who shared the screenshot of a video chat between an SHO and a woman was suspended on Tuesday, following a probe into the alleged links between the inspector and the woman.
Police said the woman in her late twenties had been in a live-in relationship with a man in Greater Noida for the past eight years and she has a four-year-old daughter with him. Her live-in partner owns a travel agency, where a vehicle theft occurred for which an FIR was lodged.
The investigation of the theft was handled by sub-inspector Mainpal Singh. As Mainpal began visiting the woman’s house, cops said, her live-in-partner started having doubts about an affair between the duo.
ACP-1 (Greater Noida) Praveen Singh told TOI that the woman’s relationship with her live-in-partner deteriorated over the past few months and in August, an FIR was lodged against the latter at the Beta II police station on a complaint of rape and assault from the woman.
However, when the matter reached the court, the woman refused to take forward the complaint and both arrived at a compromise. “Mainpal was subsequently transferred to the Jarcha police station but he tried to influence the investigation by contacting the Beta II police,” the ACP-1 said.
The matter, however, took a new turn when the woman had a video call with the Beta II SHO whose screenshot was clicked. The screenshots somehow reached Mainpal who did not like the woman’s proximity with the SHO and shared the same on a WhatsApp group where several cops are connected.
In the screenshot in possession of TOI, only the SHO’s and the woman’s faces are visible. However, Mainpal wrote that the SHO had been pressurising the woman for establishing sexual relations. After a news report of the screenshot exchange went viral, a probe was initiated into the case under ACP Praveen.
“The woman’s statements were recorded and she denied that she was being pressurised. The sub-inspector was found guilty of acting out of his purview and misusing his position. He was suspended after my findings,” the ACP said.
A statement from the media cell of the Noida police said that a department inquiry against Mainpal is on.