Lady alleges assault by police

Vivek Chhetri, TT, Darjeeling, March 15: A 46-year-old homemaker from a Scheduled Tribe community today lodged a complaint with Darjeeling police station alleging that a team of law enforcers who had come to arrest her husband had hit her with a lathi and "dragged" the woman from her residence for nearly one kilometre last night.

Bina Lepcha, the mother of three from Lapcha Busty, said she had been harassed by a team of policemen led by assistant sub-inspector of police at Darjeeling Sadar police station, Sanjay Chhetri.

Today, Bina, accompanied by her neighbours, came to the Darjeeling Sadar police station to lodge a complaint.

Bina said: "Around 12.15am (Sunday), a police team led by assistant sub-inspector of police, Sanjay Chhetri, came to our house to conduct a raid. They entered the house and poked my husband with a lathi and woke him up. I requested the police to let him change his trousers."

According to Bina, the police arrested her husband and took him outside the house at Lapcha Busty, 14km from here. "It was cold outside and I once again requested the police to allow him to wear a jacket. At this particular moment, my husband managed to escape."

The woman said once her husband fled, the police starting harassing her.

"There was no woman constable in the patrol team which had come in one police jeep. They blamed me for my husband's escape and even tried to tie me with a rope. They hit me with a lathi three times and dragged me from Bahun Goan, where my house is located, till Panikaal Dara, which is about a kilometre away. They also stomped on my feet," said Bina.

Bina said she had been let off at Panikal Dara.

Bina went to the police station, accompanied by members of Purna Jagaran Sang, a community-based organisation, Catholic Association, Dush Naam Kanya Samaj and Nawa Jagrati Samaj.

The representatives of the samajs along with Bina met Darjeeling Sadar inspector-in-charge, Manoj Chakraborty, and lodged the complaint.

Sources said the police had gone to arrest Dilip as a Darjeeling court had issued an arrest warrant.

"It was a case registered in 1994," said a police source, who could not immediately recollect the Sections of the IPC under which the accused were booked.

Bina and her husband Dilip Lepcha are daily wage earners.

Chakraborty reportedly assured the woman that her complaint would be forwarded to the superintendent of police, Darjeeling.

Akhilesh Kumar Chaturvedi, superintendent of police, Darjeeling, said: "I have not received the complaint. However, once I receive it, we will start due legal process."

Delhi dharna

Binay Tamang, assistant secretary of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, said that Delhi police had stopped the party's rally on Sunday. "There was intense agitation today. We had brought out a rally from Jantar Mantar but Delhi police stopped the procession from moving forward," Tamang said over the phone from Delhi.

The Morcha has been holding a dharna at Jantar Mantar since March 9 to demand the creation of Gorkhaland. The dharna will end on March 17. Bimal Gurung reached Delhi on Saturday to participate in the dharna.