Harassed by cops, 2 sisters commit suicide; probe ordered (Second Lead)
By IANSThursday, May 27, 2010
BHOPAL - Two young sisters in Madhya Pradesh committed suicide by consuming poison following harassment by two constables, who had allegedly clicked obscene photographs of one of them. A high-level probe has been ordered.
The suicides took place in Madhya Pradesh’s Chhatarpur district, about 350 km from here.
While the younger girl (13) died Wednesday, the elder (17) died Thursday in a hospital in Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh where she was being treated, police said.
Two police constables, Kanhaiyalal and Arvind Patel, had allegedly caught the elder sister with her boyfriend May 21 in a deserted area. The cops snatched the mobile phone of the boy and forced him to leave the place, an official said.
They then allegedly molested the girl and clicked some obscene photographs of her with the mobile phone.
Next day, the girl filed a written complaint with Chhatarpur’s Additional Superintendent of Police Sushil Tiwari, stating that the constables had clicked obscene photographs of her and were harassing her.
“On receipt of the complaint, I checked the cell phones of the constables but there was nothing objectionable,” Tiwari told IANS.
“However, the constables were suspended with immediate effect and a departmental enquiry was ordered against them,” he added.
The sisters told their neighbours that the constables had come to their house Wednesday and were harassing them, police said.
Superintendent of Police Prem Singh Bisht said one of the constables accused of harassing the sisters suffered a heart attack on hearing that the girls had consumed poison in attempted suicide.
Taking a serious note of the incident, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan asked the Additional Director General of Police (Intelligence) R.C. Arora and Inspector General of Police (Intelligence) K.N. Tiwari to probe the matter.
Home Minister Umashankar Gupta and state police chief S.K. Raut and other senior officers were present at the meeting called by Chouhan at the state secretariat.
