Bhubaneswar: Confined to a wheelchair with a brace around her neck, Bharatpur police atrocity victim and friend of Army officer Major Gurvansh Singh cried for justice while narrating the alleged violence and sexual assault perpetrated on her by IIC Dinakrushna Mishra and his staffers in the wee hours of Sunday. “Those who were supposed to help me instead took turns to brutalise me.
IIC Mishra sexually assaulted me,” alleged the city-based restaurateur in an agonising voice with signs of the trauma writ large on her face. Speaking briefly to media persons on the corridors of City AIIMS where she has been admitted for treatment for the injuries she suffered in the vicious attack, Thursday, she said the unprovoked assault took her and her friend Gurvansh by surprise. Giving a detailed account of what happened a little past Saturday midnight, the ‘victim’ said 10-12 persons travelling in a rashly driven vehicle stopped the vehicle in which she and Gurvansh were travelling on the Pathargadia-Chandaka Road. “They started misbehaving with us. Somehow we managed to save us and later went to Bharatpur police station to lodge a complaint,” she said. The woman said they found a lady cop in civil clothes sitting on a chair at the police station. “When we told her about the incident and requested her to inform the patrol vehicle to nab the miscreants, she, instead yelled at us, and even abused us using filthy language,” she alleged.
A few minutes later, a PCR van drove into the police station premises with three cops in it. The ‘victim’ said after learning about the incident, they helped Gurvansh in submitting a written complaint. “However, in the next moment two of them started raining blows and kicks on Gurvansh, and bundled him into a cell,” she alleged. The woman said she protested to the policemen’s action and told them not to treat an Army officer in that manner. “Hearing this, two female cops dragged me into a room by my hair. In a bid to escape, I bit their hands. This angered them further and they tied up my hands using my jacket, and legs with a scarf,” she alleged. The ‘victim’ said her ordeal didn’t end there.” After a while, a male constable entered the room and started touching my private parts. When I shouted for help, he bolted the door from inside and kept hitting me till daybreak,” she added. She said the IIC entered the room at around 6am. “He unzipped his trousers before me. I screamed at the top of my voice for help. However, it didn’t stop Mishra who continued hurting me sexually. He threatened me with dire consequences if I didn’t stop shouting,” she alleged.
Meanwhile, her father Brigadier Antaryami Pradhan said she is likely to be discharged from the hospital in the next four-five days. ”She has been advised ample rest by doctors to heal completely,” he said. On Wednesday, Mishra and four other cops from the police station were suspended by DGP YB Khurania, pending an investigation into the incident by the Crime Branch.