New Delhi: Three Dalit women have alleged that they were beaten and harassed by the Maharashtra Police who entered their flat, searched it, and took them to their local police station in an effort to search for a married woman who was allegedly fleeing harassment by her in-laws.

Two of the three women who shared a flat at Pune’s Kothrud, said that on August 2, police of Kothrud and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (formerly Aurangabad), entered their flat without any notice or warrant, searched their rooms, opened their mobile phones, read private chats, viewed personal photos and insulted them by using casteist slurs. 

The police were ostensibly looking for a 23-year-old married woman, Priya*, who had arrived at Pune from Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar on July 31, having escaped her allegedly abusive husband and in-laws. Priya’s husband had filed a missing person complaint at the Satara police station in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, The Wire has learnt. 

Upon reaching Kothrud, Priya contacted her friend – one of the three Dalit women harassed by police later. Her friend, who had a job in Dhanori near Korthrud, gave Priya the contacts of social activist Shweta Patil. Patil arranged for Priya to stay the night at the flat of the two women who were known to her. 

After sheltering at the flat for the night of July 31, Priya left the following day for the Sakhi One Stop Centre in the Mundhwa area of Pune. The Centre is a shelter for women and also provides legal assistance to needy women facing domestic violence or any other form of harassment.

Savita Bhore, the centre administrator of the Sakhi One Stop Centre, said, “[Priya] came to the centre on August 1, at around 3 pm. Our centre provides temporary shelter to needy women. She stayed here for one and a half days and then left." Police later said that Priya has been at her maternal home since then.

Police involvement

Priya left the Kothrud flat for the Centre on August 1.

On the same afternoon, Kothrud and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar police entered the flat of the two Dalit women. The women said that they were not shown warrants or notices and that police personnel told them to visit the Kothrud police station and began searching the flat. Priya’s father-in-law, Sakharam Sanap, was present, the women alleged. Sanap is a retired police officer.

Police also went to the workplace of Priya’s friend who was working at Dhanori and brought her to the Kothrud Police Station.

The three women said that police asked them their names and surnames, and used casteist language. "They searched our belongings, checked our mobile phones, checked our photos and then took us to the Kothrud police station. There, in the name of interrogation, we were beaten up and abused," they said.

Women officers kicked and slapped the three women, they alleged.

Even after police had verified that Priya was at the Sakhi One Stop Centre, the three Dalit women were kept in the police station for five or six more hours, the women have claimed.

Priya was also brought from the Sakhi One Stop Centre to the Kothrud police station, where her statement was recorded by the police. 

Police refuses to register Dalit women's FIR 

On the following day, August 2, the three women went to the Kothrud police station to file a complaint with social activists Shweta Patil, advocate Parikrama Khot and other activists. 

They wanted to register a complaint against the police's conduct from the day before. However, the police refused to file their complaint and did not give them a proper response, they said.

Shweta Patil shared a live video from outside the Kothrud police station on Facebook. 

"At the police station, police officials asked my friends, ‘You are a Mahar-Mang (Dalit castes), that is why you will behave this way?’ The officials harassed my friends mentally and physically. This is not an inquiry; this is caste-based humiliation,” Patil told The Wire.

“Filing an FIR is our constitutional right. Action must be taken against all the officials who are involved in this process, including Sanjeevani Shinde, Amol Kamthe, Prema Patil, and [Priya’s] father-in-law, Sakharam Sanap."

Nitish Nawasagray, professor at the ILS Law College cited Section 5 of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. “It makes it obligatory for the officer in charge of the police station to file an FIR based on the complainant's information. Not registering an FIR is an offence under Section 4 of the same act,” he said.

On August 3, various Dalit and political organisations, led by Sujat Ambedkar of the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi, gathered at the Kothrud police station. Rohit Pawar, MLA from the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar faction), Anjali Maydeo, Parikrama Khot, and other activists were also present at the police station.

At midnight the next day, August 4, the police issued a written statement. In it, they stated: "Since the alleged incident did not occur in 'public view', we cannot file an FIR."

Nawasagray has called this a laughable claim. For an offence under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act to be established, the alleged abuse or insult based on caste must occur in a "public view" but the professor argues that all police stations are public places.

Sujat Ambedkar told The Wire that while an investigation starts when an FIR is filed, police have “already investigated and rejected the FIR, which means something has gone wrong in this issue. This is an abuse of power by the Maharashtra police.”

“These girls were beaten up in a closed room of the Kothrud police station, where there was no CCTV. While all this was happening, the police who came from Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar and the victim's father-in-law were present there. This clearly shows that there is pressure from the government on the police,” he claimed, adding that they will go to court to pursue this.

Lawyer Parikrama Khot stated, "The police were expected to file an FIR and then conduct an investigation. However, instead of doing so, they counter-questioned the women who had suffered mental harassment, which is not per law." 

When The Wire contacted Joint Commissioner of Police Ranjan Kumar Sharma and asked why an FIR was not filed, he stated: "Primarily, we felt that no offence was made out, because the police were doing their job, and whatever they did was legal. The ACP of Kothrud is conducting an inquiry, and if any finding comes up in that, action will be taken accordingly."

When The Wire asked why the three Dalit women were detained at the Kothrud police station even after Priya was found by the police at the Sakhi One Stop Centre, he said, "No, no, they were not kept after that; everyone was released afterwards. Three of them were released immediately after it was confirmed that she was at the centre. 

*Name changed to protect her identity.

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