CHANDIGARH: The residents of the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) hostel are in a state of shock, following the beating and kidnapping of Ms Chander Bala, 22. from within the complex, also legedly by Punjab policemen, the evening of Feb 17.
The local police have registered a caisson the charges of abduction con spiracy, illegal confinement and beating of the girl. The complaint was lodged with the Sector-11 police station by the hostel warden, Mrs. Dean.
Later, the girl was released by the cops and she returned to the hostel at around 8:30 p.m. Inquiries, however, revealed that the FIR registered by the police does not specifically mention the involvement of the Punjab police in the incident.
The warden recounted that at about 5:30 pm on Feb.17, about a dozen cops accompanied by the father of the girl and three of her relatives, descended on the hostel and asked the girl to accompany them. In response, she produced a court injunction restraining the members of her family from taking her into their custody. Ignoring it, the cops began beating her and forcibly bundled her into one of the three waiting police vehicles. A medical examination conducted at the General Hospital confirmed the use of blunt weapons, resulting in bruises on the girl’s body
Ms Chander Bala said that her illiterate parents did not want her to continue with her studies and her present job as a stenographer. She disclosed that she had left her native village. Mander in Fatehgarh Sahib District, of her own
In fact, her parents had lodged a complaint at the Khammano police station in Fatehgarh Sahib District, reporting her as missing. They had also expressed their apprehension that she could have been abducted by someone based in Chandigarh
Narrating her tale of woe, Ms Bala said that earlier also her parents had kept her locked in a room for two months till she finally managed to escape to Chandigarh. She had worked as daily wager in the Punjab School Education Board at Mohali for a month.
Rajinder Singh, an acquaintance of the girl, who had come to meet her said that four of her relatives wanted to marry her off to someone she did not like. They, he alleged, were using the Punjab police cops to put pressure on the girl
A senior UT police officer revealed that raiding parties had been dispatched to Mohali and Khammano police stations, to investigate the charge of Punjab police’s involvement in the crime.
A hostel inmate disclosed that there was inadequate security at the YWCA complex and the management did not pay any hood to the demands of the residents.
Article extracted from this publication >> February 24, 1995
