Court orders probe into police assault on women

GANDHINAGAR - A Godhra court Tuesday ordered an enquiry following complaints of police atrocities on women and children in a predominantly Muslim locality.

Teesta Setalvad, of the Citizens for Peace and Justice, who produced the victims of the police ‘assault’ before mediapersons in Ahmedabad Tuesday said the Godhra Judicial Magistrate first class M. Nalawala had ordered an enquiry under section 202 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

The order was a sequel to the Dec 19 arrest of eight women on charges of rioting and assault on the police.

The women - all belonging to the minority community and housewives in the age group of 19 to 40 years - had complained of police atrocity, violence on their person and molestation before the magistrate who sent them for medical examination to the government hospital and thereafter ordered the enquiry.

However, Superintendent of Police J.M. Mothariya said the arrests had been made after a police party which had gone to arrest ‘a wanted criminal’ was obstructed by residents of the Geni plot in Godhra town.

Later, acting on information that ‘the criminal’ was hiding in the Hathila plot area, the police had raided the place but were thwarted by the womenfolk leading to their arrest.

However, Muslim clergy and leaders of the community from the town have contested the police claim and said that the cops had no right to arrest women in the dead of night in the absence of women police constables.

“The women were assaulted and dragged by the hair, even molested by the abusive cops. A lactating mother with an 18-day-old baby was also not spared and even the child was beaten,” Setalvad alleged.

She pointed out that the lady judicial officer had personally witnessed the bruises and assault marks on the women and ordered them sent for medical examination besides ordering the enquiry.

The women have, in letters to Chief Minister Narendra Modi and the state police chief, demanded immediate action against the policemen involved in the assault.