Police highhandedness: Man beaten black and blue in Bengal

Kolkata, Nov 10 (SocialNews.XYZ) A couple of days after the video of a person being pinned down on the road in Kolkata by a civic volunteer at the point of his shoes went viral, another incident of police highhandedness came to fore when a person was beaten black and blue inside a police lock-up by an Assistant Sub-Inspector following a quarrel with the officer.

The incident that took place at the Mahestala police station in South 24 Parganas district came to light on Wednesday when the family members of the victim lodged a complaint at the Alipur court, alleging that the victim -- Sumanta Bera -- was beaten in such a way in the police lockup that he had fractures in four different places.

Bera underwent a surgery at a private hospital on Wednesday. The Chief Judicial Magistrate has asked the district police to investigate the matter.

The incident dates back to Friday when the ASI had a tiff with Bera over keeping his motorbike on the road. The ASI, who was not on duty, had kept his motorbike on the road in such a way that it was creating problems for the movement of people and traffic.

Bera had protested, leading to a quarrel which eventually led to a street fight. The ASI immediately informed the police station and physically tortured Bera for the whole night inside the lock-up. The next morning, Bera was produced before the court where he was granted bail.

"When he came home in the morning, we found there were fractures on his hands, collar-bone and rib-cage. He was immediately rushed to a local hospital. We went to the police station to lodge a complaint but they refused to take any complaint. So we moved the court seeking justice," said the victim's brother, who is also a member of the administrative body of the Mahestala Municipality.

Local Trinamool MLA Dulal Das said, "This is unfortunate. Police cannot take law into their hands. If he had done any mistake, the police could have taken the legal route, but instead they behaved like goons. This highhandedness is not at all acceptable. We want suspension of the officer immediately."

The Trinamool Congress also demonstrated in front of the police station seeking removal of the officer. However, the district police were not available for comment.

A couple of days back, Kolkata Police had suspended one civic volunteer after a video went viral showing the volunteer identified as Tanmoy Biswas pinning down one person on the road and kicking him on his throat and chest in full public view. Kolkata Police Commissioner Soumen Mitra had apologised for the incident.

Source: IANS