GUWAHATI: Assam’s Director-General of Police, Bhaskarjyoti Mahanta has admitted to lapses by the police at the initial stage of probe into the knocking down of eight labourers by a model driving her car through the streets of Guwahati on the night of October 1.
Mahanta said when he learnt about the incident, he called up a senior police officer and reprimanded him for not keeping his seniors in the loop. “I directed that a case be filed under culpable homicide not amounting to murder. Mistakes were made at the initial stage of probe and a process is on for punitive actions,” the DGP said. Two police officers have been already ‘reserved’ in connection with the incident.
Rajkanya Baruah, who was a contestant of Femina Miss India, 2016, had managed to get bail soon after the incident. Later, following Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s intervention, the police arrested her from a private hospital. The legs of one of the injured labourers had to be amputated.
Navnil Barua, a doctor employed at the private hospital, is now under the scanner for allegedly trying to protect the model by admitting her to the ICU. Talking about his phone conversation with the doctor, the DGP said, “He told me the woman had suicidal tendency and as such, if she was being arrested, we should take precautions. I said that this would be taken care of”.
Mahanta said the labourers were injured due to someone’s negligence, arrogance and drunken behaviour. The police should have made a strong case by slapping the relevant sections of the IPC and place it before the court. But it was not done, he lamented.
Asked about an MLA who had allegedly tried to rescue the model from the police, Mahanta said, “I have asked the DCP to find out what party it was (at a five-star hotel). I said the CCTV footage needs to be collected and examined. The woman was medically examined but I doubt they (investigating officers) sought a test to ascertain if she was drunk.” Meanwhile, the doctor in question was interrogated by the police for the second successive day on Saturday.