Two cops booked for torturing Delhi woman thief in custody

KOCHI: Two police personnel including a woman officer have run into some serious trouble after a Delhi native woman, who was recently arrested on charges of lifting gold ornaments from a jewellery in the city, alleged custodial torture.

A case was registered against the male and the female police officers based on the complaint lodged by 35-year-old Anju Chopra who alleged that the two officers physically assaulted her while she was in custody at the Central police station in the city.

She alleged that the incident took place around 3pm on June 30 in a room in the police station. Based on her complaint, the police booked the two police officers under IPC Section 323 (voluntarily causing hurt). “We are looking into the complaint given by the woman. Primarily, it looks like just an allegation as a counter to the robbery case in which the woman was arrested,” said an officer.

It was on June 22 that a city police team nabbed the woman based on the CCTV footage. According to police, Anju Chopra, a resident of Connaught Place in New Delhi, visited the jewellery shop on MG Road in the guise of purchasing gold ornaments and lifted two bangles weighing about three sovereigns each. Though she fled from the spot leaving no time for the staff to follow her, the police swung into action and chased her after checking visuals from the CCTV cameras at the jewellery and on the road stretch.

She was arrested from the South railway station minutes before she boarded a train. The police recovered 14 gold bangles including the two lifted from the jewellery shop from her possession and got inputs that she was part of a racket which only targeted jewellery shops. The police said the woman was currently under judicial custody and she had levelled custodial torture allegations to get the police personnel, who took her into custody, in a legal tangle.