KOLKATA: In a rare instance of 'on-the-spot judicial activism', a woman additional chief judicial magistrate (ACJM) of Nadia district in West Bengal single-handedly barged into a police station and rescued a 22-year-old woman who was illegally detained there for five days, returned with her to the court, recorded her statement and sent the young woman to a welfare home.
Upon hearing the petition of farm labourer Govinda Biswas -- who claimed to be father of a 22-year-old woman working as a house maid in Delhi -- that her daughter has been picked up by police from home in Mayurhat village near Indo-Bangladesh border on December 23 and illegally detained at Hanskhali police station, Ranaghat ACJM Sanghamitra Poddar on Wednesday straightaway went to the police station alone in her car, without even informing her bodyguards.
Upon enquiry in Hanskhali police station near Ranaghat, she found that not even a general diary has been done with regard to the detention of the woman. Sources revealed that on questioning, officer-in-charge Anindya Bose could not provide the grounds on which the young woman was detained.
The judge has directed OC Bose to give an explanation as to why the woman was not produced in the court even 24 hours after detention. The police had earlier stated that the woman was detained on the basis of ‘suspicious movements’ and on questioning she could not give coherent details of her identity.
“The portrayal of illegal detention is false. However, the matter is sub judice now so I cannot give any details,” said Hanskhali officer-in-charge SI Anindya Bose.
Police sources said that presence of the woman in Mayurhat village near the Indo-Bangladesh border without proper identification was also a reason for their suspicion. Nadia Superintendent of Police Sheesh Ram Jhajharia has ordered an enquiry into the matter of illegal detention.
Earlier in the same district, another judge had created a record of speedy justice by delivering judgment in a sexual assault case within 15 days.