LUCKNOW: A police inspector in UP's Deoria district, who was caught masturbating at a woman and her daughter when they visited the police station to lodge a complaint in a land dispute case on June 22, was arrested from his hideout in Basti late on Wednesday night.
The officer Bheesma Pal Singh Yadav, in-charge of Bhatni police station in Deoria district, has been terminated from service by the Uttar Pradesh Police.
As per the police sources, the SHO was arrested after Deoria SP Shri Pati Mishra announced a reward of Rs 25,000 to help find the absconding inspector Bheesma Pal Singh Yadav.
Some police officials said that the inspector was accused of masturbating in front of the two women intentionally to harass them while talking to them in his office chamber. Deoria SP said the inspector was booked under sections 166 (public servant disobeying law), 354-A (sexual harassment), and 509 (act with intent to insult the modesty of a woman) of the IPC and that he was asked to surrender but absconded.
Another police official of Deoria said the initial investigation had revealed that the video was recorded on June 22 when the inspector was seen masturbating on his chair while the two women, seated opposite him, were talking about a land dispute with their relatives.
In their complaint, one of the two women had claimed that she along with her mother visited Bhatni police station at least thrice to lodge the complaint in a land dispute they had in the village. Every time she went to the police station, the inspector would not hear them and rather used to touch himself salaciously in front of them.
“I ignored him at least twice before deciding to record his act on camera and expose him in front of his seniors and public,” said the complainant in her submission.
She said she secretly shot the video when the inspector repeated the act on June 22 and shared it with senior officials. The inspector was suspended on June 26 and FIR was lodged on June 30 when local journalists took up the matter with the SP.
Inspector Yadav was also on radar in connection with a case of theft of money and ornaments of silver and gold on the idols in a temple in Bhatni. He was suspended following this incident.