Rourkela: Police SI suspended, Station In-charge transferred for illegal detention of minors

Rourkela: The Rourkela Superintendent of Police Mukesh Kumar Bhamu today suspended a Sub Inspector and transferred an In-charge of the Sector-7 police station for allegedly detaining minor boys overnight at the police station in the city.

As per reports, a handloom expo was being held at Bhanja Mandap in Sector-5 on April 8 evening. The parking area adjacent to the handloom expo venue was taken on lease by Binaya Ram with due permission of the Sector-7 Police Station.

In order to ensure safety of the vehicles at the parking lot, Ram had engaged some minor boys to collect the fee from the vehicle owners and provide them token.

A female police official dressed in a casual salwar kameez reached the handloom expo venue. She parked her vehicle in the parking lot and left for the exhibition. After few minutes when she returned to take her vehicle, one of the minor boys asked her to pay Rs 10. Suddenly the female police official flared up.

However, she told the minor boy engaged at the parking lot that she is a police officer. The boy then requested her to go without asking for the parking fee.

The female police officer remained vindictive and decided to teach a lesson to the minor boys. She called up her husband working as the Station In-charge at the Sector-7 Police Station.

The police personnel reached the spot and picked up five persons including three minors into the police station. The five were detained throughout the night at the police station throughout the night.

One of them was about to complete 18 year and falling short of seven days on April 8. Ram, the parking lot leaseholder, was also detained by the police.

When family members of the detainees staged protest in front of the Secor-7 police station, the police let the five persons go the next day sensing that the situation might go out of control.

One of the five persons was a Plus II Commerce student and was unable to appear in the exam on April 9 due to the detention by the police.

Following a complaint, the CWC Chairperson Ramchandra Behera launched an investigation and submitted a report to the Rourkela SP. Behera also recommended stringent action against the police officials who violated the rules.

Taking the CWC report into consideration, the Rourkela SP today suspended Sub Inspector Artatrana Sethi and transferred In-Charge of Sector-7 police station Satish Nayak to the Rourkela Police Headquarters.