Calcutta HC directs IPS Murlidhar Sharma to file report on charges of torture in all-women police station

Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday directed Murlidhar Sharma, Inspector General of Police (IGP), Training, of the state police academy to file a report before it on allegations of physical torture made by a Leftist student leader in an all-women police station in Paschim Medinipur district.

Petitioner Sucharita Das moved the court alleging that she was taken to the all-women police station in Medinipur town during a protest in front of Vidyasagar University there on March 3 and that she was subjected to physical torture.

Justice Tirthankar Ghosh directed Sharma, a senior IPS officer, to consider the CCTV footage of the police station along with all the digital materials available there in the background of the accusations made by the petitioner.

The court directed that the report be submitted before it by March 25 and that the matter will appear for hearing again on March 26 for consideration of the report.

A students' strike was called on March 5, in colleges and universities in West Bengal by Leftist student unions, over incidents of violence during protests at Jadavpur University in Kolkata on March 1 when the state Education Minister Bratya Basu went there for a meeting.

Justice Ghosh directed that the officer-in-charge of the all-women police station will file an affidavit in opposition by April 9 on the incident, dealing with the accusations made by the petitioner.

He directed that the affidavit in reply to it be submitted by the petitioner by April 17.

It was alleged in the petition that Das was subjected to physical torture in the all-women police station.

West Bengal Advocate General Kishore Dutta submitted that there is a video recording of the petitioner's stay in the police station and claimed that she was not subjected to any torture and was served food there.

He further stated that the petitioner's lawyer, who met her immediately after, did not raise any such issue then.

Dutta submitted that she was allowed to leave at around 1.09 am the next day as it was a matter of preventive detention owing to the agitation at the university and not a formal arrest.

The court said it will hear another matter by the petitioner Susrita Saren over similar allegations on Wednesday.