Supreme Court tells Punjab to give erring cops bravery medals

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court today dismissed a magisterial report into the March 3, 2013 incident in which a woman was beaten up in public by Punjab Police and derisively told the state government to award them bravery medals as it claimed that she manhandled the cops.

"She used unparliamentary language and threw her sandals at the cops," ASG Siddharth Luthra claimed reading from the report. The top court dismissed the report as "scrap which should be thrown into a dustbin".

Instead the bench told the state sarcastically to award the cops bravery medals. The bench also commented adversely on the fact the victim and her father had "apologised" over the incident.

Cops thrashed the woman and her aged father after she complained of molestation by taxi drivers on the Taran taran highway. She belongs to the Majhabi Sikh sect which is a lower caste in the state. The taxi drivers have since been arrested.

The magisterial report claimed that police have to resort to lathi-charge to bring such situations under control. Amicus curiae Harish Salve dubbed the report shocking and demanded a CBI probe into the incident.

The court directed that the victims be provided security for their protection. The bench also warned that it would impose hefty fines on the erring cops as a salutary measure.

Justices G.S. Singhvi and Kurian Joseph also expressed concern over the repeated occurences of this nature almost everywhere in the country.

"Then there is a magisterial inquiry and the cop is suspended and Rs 10000 awarded to the victim for loss of her dignity. How can this problem be solved? How to bring about change?"