PATNA: A police officer in Bihar was on Monday placed under suspension and a judicial probe was ordered into brutal police action during a wedding ceremony in which, according to the police’s erroneous claims, the bridegroom was abducted and forced into marriage.
A team of policemen from Gaighat police station in Muzaffarpur district had unleashed violence at the wedding of Julie Kumari and Abhinay Kumar and brutally beaten up Julie and her family members on Friday.
A badly injured Julie and three other family members were also arrested on charge of abducting Abhinay for the marriage.
The police action at the wedding mandap (altar) had caused widespread condemnation and even led to a brief clash between villagers and the policemen.
“The court of Muzaffarpur sub-judge-16, which Julie’s family approached with a complaint about the unprecedented police brutality, took up the matter and judge Subhash Kumar Rai ordered a judicial inquiry into it,” said Julie’s lawyer Sangita Shah, a former member of the Bihar State Women's Commission. “The police action at a wedding was reprehensible and based on false claims,” she added.
The court’s order came after Abhinay, who had fled the wedding altar during the police brutality fearing for his life, presented himself at the court along with his family and said he was not abducted.
“It was a wedding being solemnised with mutual consent of our families. The police action, which happened during the final stage of the rituals, was unwarranted,” said Abhinay, who also visited Julie at a hospital where she is being treated for injuries she sustained
after thrashing by the policemen.
Muzaffarpur SSP Vivek Kumar placed Rajesh Chaudhury, the SHO of Gaighat police station, under suspension and shifted the entire staff of the police station to the police lines on Monday.
“The police action was prompted by a complaint received from the bridegroom’s family claiming he was abducted and was being forced into marriage,” said the SSP.
“We are already married and we will live together as husband and wife,” said Julie, who alleged that the police beat herself and her sister Shobha, also admitted at the hospital, mercilessly and on their private parts.
“How did they fail to see that I was in full bridal attire and in the middle of my wedding? They beat us up like we were hardened criminals,” she added.