In fresh embarrassment for the Uttar Pradesh police, a video surfaced on Tuesday in which four constables are seen on camera insulting a woman medical student with communally slanted remarks for allegedly choosing a Muslim partner. One of them is seen hitting her too.
The student along with her male friend, also a medical student, was handed over to the police, allegedly by members of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad after they barged into his house on Sunday and manhandled both of them. The outfit did not approve of the friendship between the Hindu woman and the Muslim man.
The video from Meerut shows the student squeezed between two constables, including a woman constable, in the back-seat of a police vehicle, even as two others sit in the front.
One of the personnel, later identified as a home-guard, shoots the video and is seen using foul and sexually abusive language towards her.
“ Toh mulla zyada pasand aa raha (so you like a Mulla more)?,” he asks the student. Mulla is a communal slur used for Muslim men.
As she attempts to respond to him, the woman cop sitting on her right starts hitting her on her back and head, even as the male constable shames her with sexually coloured remarks for choosing a Muslim partner “despite being a Hindu.” The police personnel also forcibly remove the scarf from her face, revealing her identity.
Taking cognisance of the video, all four personnel, including the head constable who was seated in the front seat, have been suspended.
The police have also written to the home guards department to take action against the erring home guard constable. “This is not expected from people in uniform. They are not supposed to interfere and be speaking like this. This crime is unpardonable,” Meerut City SP Ranvijay Singh told The Hindu .
A probe has been initiated and further action will be taken, said the officer.
The video was shot while the girl was being driven to the police station, Mr. Singh said.
Both the girl and the boy were detained in the police station but were later handed over to their parents after medical examination, said the police, adding that no complaint was lodged from either side.
No action has been taken against the members of the right-wing group.
