Woman beaten by cops case: SC dismisses magisterial report

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has dismissed a magisterial report into the March 3 incident in which a woman was beaten up in public by Punjab police. In a derisive statement, the apex court told the state to award bravery medals to the cops who were manhandled as per the report. SC dismissed the report as “scrap which should be thrown into a dustbin”.

“She used unparliamentary language and threw her sandals at the cops,” additional solicitor general Siddharth Luthra claimed. The bench also commented adversely on the fact the victim and her father had “apologised” over the incident.

Cops had thrashed the woman and her aged father after she complained of molestation by taxi drivers on the Taran Taran highway. She belongs to lower caste Majhabi Sikh.

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. The bench also warned that it would impose hefty fines on the erring cops as a salutary measure.

Justices GS Singhvi and Kurian Joseph also expressed concern over the repeated occurences of such cases almost everywhere in the country. “There is a magisterial inquiry and the cop is suspended and RS 10,000 awarded to the victim for loss of her dignity. How can this problem be solved?”