Woman cop hangs self at Ludhiana police station

LUDHIANA: A 27-year-old woman police constable allegedly committed suicide at Jodhan police station, 18 km from here, on Friday night.

The body of Amanpreet Kaur, who worked as a computer operator, was found hanging from the ceiling fan in the rest room of the police station, where turbans of her male colleagues were also lying on the table.

The family members of Amanpreet, a resident of Khadoor village, held a demonstration on Saturday and demanded registration of a case against her colleagues. They alleged that she was tortured by some of her colleagues.

They also blocked LudhianaRaikot road and sat on a dharna outside Jodhan police station.

Police later registered a case against head constable Nirbhay Singh, who worked as ‘munshi’ at the police station, under Section 306 (abetment to suicide) of the IPC. The accused is on the run.

Victim’s brother Gurinder Singh alleged Nirbhay had been mentally torturing Amanpreet and “could have murdered her.”

Gurinder said they had submitted complaints regarding harassment of her sister to senior police officials in the past, but no action was taken against Nirbhay.

The family earlier refused to cremate the deceased and demanded immediate action against the police officials allegedly involved in harassing Amanpreet.

However, they cremated the body after an assurance from the senior police officials that action will be taken against the guilty.

Ludhiana (rural) senior superintendent of police (SSP) Surjit Singh said that besides the munshi, some other cops posted at Jodhan police station are also under scanner.

He said SHO Mohan Das has been suspended.

The SSP, however, said the incident was a suicide and not murder as alleged by the victim’s family members.

“Prima facie, it seems to be suicide, but we will wait for the post-mortem report,” he said.