Jalandhar:
The Punjab government today ordered a First Information Report or FIR to be registered against a woman police officer after a college student, Shivali, committed suicide in Jalandhar a day ago. The police officer, Balwinder Kaur, along with two local journalists has been charged with abetment to suicide.
Shivali, an under-graduate student at the SD College in Jalandhar, jumped before a train near the Domoria bridge after she was stopped and questioned by a police team when she was going in a car with a boy, according to reports. The police team, led by Ms Kaur, allegedly forced the boy and girl out of the car and questioned them.
The boy was also made to do squats on the road. Eye-witnesses to the incident had said the girl was humiliated by the police team in full media glare. The girl had reportedly objected to the harassment and had asked the local media not to take her photographs.
After the suicide, Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal had asked Inspector General of the Jalandhar zone, Gurpreet Deo, to conduct a thorough inquiry into the circumstances leading to the suicide of the teenager Shivali.
"The matter has been examined and it has been decided that suitable disciplinary action against the Inspector Balwinder Kaur for her general misconduct and specifically misconduct in the present instance be initiated," said a press release by the Punjab government today.
"It has been decided that an FIR under provisions of Section 306 IPC for abetment of suicide of Ms. Shivali against Inspector Balwinder Kaur, photojournalist Brijesh Kumar and Cameraman Ravi may be registered," it added.
(With inputs from IANS)