Burla/Nagpur: Even as Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Thursday asked gathering of policemen in the city to create an atmosphere in which citizens should approach the police stations with a hope instead of fear, State Director General of Police K.B. Singh suspended a woman police officer in connection with the custodial torture of a boy in Hirakud police station a few months ago.
Singh ordered suspension of Inspector-in-Charge of Hirakud police station Savitri Bal hours after Sambalpur district Superintendent of Police Akhileshvar Singh attached her to the district headquarters police station.
Acting on the probe report of Sub-Divisional Police Officer of Burla, the SP had suspended two Constables, Ambuja Sahu and Jeet Narayan Podha, and dismissed Home Guard Siba Gouda, while attaching Ms. Bal to the district headquarters police station earlier in the day.
The custodial torture of a minor boy inside the Hirakud police station was telecast by a private Odia television channel on Wednesday.
The SDPO was asked to conduct a probe into the alleged torture of the boy in police custody after the channel telecast video footage of the boy’s torture by the policemen inside their police station in September last year.
It was alleged the 15-year-old boy, who was taken into custody on the charge of stealing a mobile phone, was kept in the police station for three days and brutally tortured before he was released after her mother paid a bribe of Rs. 6,000.
Meanwhile, taking suo motu cognisance of the media report, the State Human Rights Commission on Thursday directed the Sambalpur SP and Deputy Inspector General concerned to file a report before it within seven days.
