Punjab cop held for molesting UK woman on train

Friday, 22/05/2015

http://paper.hindustantimes.com/epaper/viewer.aspx

CHANDIGARH: A Punjab policeman was arrested on Thursday for molesting a British student aboard a moving train on Tuesday (May 19). She had asked him for help at the Amritsar railway station against a pestering bystander.

Home Guards jawan Sukhvinder Singh, who belongs to Chheharta, was arrested by Government Railway Police (GRP) from his area of posting near the Amritsar central jail after pressure built by the victim’s written complaint to British High Commission forced the case to be registered two days after the incident. The victim says that for an entire day, her friends tried to get a complaint registered with Punjab Police, who did not respond.

GRP station house officer (SHO) Dharminder Kalyan from Amritsar said: “The woman’s complaint seems genuine, and we got into action as soon as it came to us.” “I could have been raped. It’s my luck that I escaped unhurt,” said the victim, 23, terrified even as she narrated her nightmare aboard the afternoon Shaheed Express that runs between Amritsar and New Delhi. “After four days in Amritsar as part of my study of world’s religions, I was heading back to New Delhi. I had reached the railway station a little early and a tall man there was pestering me as I waited for the train. When the train arrived and I got into the coach, I saw a policeman sitting behind me, to whom I told him about the man, pointing him out. The pesky man retreated when he saw this, but as the train started moving, the policeman now moved next to me,” she said. “There was only one other passenger in the carriage, to whom the cop said something in Punjabi and paid what looked like a 50-rupee note. The man lay down instantly and pretended to sleep. The policeman then started making obscene gestures, moving his hands over his private parts, and saying something in Punjabi, perhaps inviting me to touch him. Then he started making kissing noises, touching his chest and brushing his thighs against mine. He pointed to the sleeping man, then to his silver ring. I don’t know what he was suggesting but it was sexual, clearly,” said the foreign visitor. It got her angry. “No, no, nahi, I said as firmly as I could, yet the sleeping man didn’t open his eyes. Then I shouted ‘BBC, BBC’, pointing at myself. I have a friend in BBC and it was the only thing I could think of that might frighten him off. The cop stopped for a moment; I think the he understood what it meant. I took the opportunity to try and escape. Because his feet were up against the opposite seat, I had to climb over him,” said the British woman.

She clambered up to the upper berth where she had stored her bag, took pictures of him, and wrote down his name from the tag on the uniform. “He saw what I was doing, and I was shocked that he actually smiled at me; not a bit ashamed or afraid. He got off at the station after Amritsar. That’s when the sleeping man woke up suddenly.” “When I reached Delhi and told my friends, they tried to contact Punjab Police to file a complaint. They made more than 10 calls to a number of places, including the office of the director general of police, but no one took responsibility for the complaint,” says the woman, adding: “I am very keen for this man to see justice. I cannot bear to imagine how many other vulnerable women have been through this and felt unable to complain because the man is a police officer.”