Kolkata cops accused of urinating in youth's mouth

Inquiry has been ordered against ASI and two constables

A fresh controversy, which is likely to push the Mamata Banerjee administration into another uncomfortable corner, finds three policemen in Kolkata accused of urinating on a youth, who had asked them for help against some anti-socials.

The parents of 20-year-old Md Rafiq Anwar, a resident of Beniapukur, which is barely a couple of kilometres away from the city’s central business district, filed a complaint with the local police station on Saturday alleging that their son was walking towards his home late on Thursday evening through the Park Circus Maidan — the large sports ground and morning walkers’ haven provides much-needed greenery to the otherwise concretised area — when he was accosted by four men.

The men asked Rafiq for a matchbox to light their cigarette, but when he said he had none and walked on, they stopped him again, surrounded him and started forcibly digging into his pockets.

As these men were taking away Rafiq’s mobile phone and whatever cash he had, he noticed a black police van making rounds of the park and raised an alarm. Managing to tear himself away from the four men, he started running towards the van, when the men screamed “Thief!” from behind him.

As he reached the police, they hit Rafiq instead of helping him and beat him up severely, claimed Rafiq’s father Gazi Anwar in his complaint.

The complaint further alleged that when, gasping for breath after being assaulted, he asked for water, the policemen urinated in Rafiq’s mouth.

On Thursday night, when some of Rafiq’s neighbours saw him being pushed into the police van and being driven away from the dimly-lit ground, they informed his parents.

While his parents accused the policemen of being drunk, cops from Beniapukur police station claimed that Rafiq was inebriated at the time of the incident.

Rafiq, who had fallen unconscious, was admitted to a nearby state-run hospital, where he has been keeping under medical observation by doctors.

Meanwhile, following the formal complaint by Rafiq’s parents, Kolkata Police on Saturday ordered an enquiry against the assistant sub-inspector and two constables for allegedly assaulting the youth.

All three policemen have been ordered to stay away from routine work at their station of posting, and have been asked to present themselves before the duty office at Lalbazar, the city police’s headquarters.

Sources in the city police informed on Saturday that while any assault mark is yet to be found on Rafiq, if the allegations against the policemen prove to be true, suitable action would be taken.

Senior officials, however, preferred to stay away from commenting on the matter till further instructions from the state government.