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Guwahati, May 22: The women's wing of the Congress has protested against the recent appointment of an IPS officer, who was "charge-sheeted for sexually assaulting" a minor girl, as the superintendent of police of a district in Assam and demanded his removal from the post.
In a letter to Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma who also holds the Home portfolio, All India Mahila Congress President Sushmita Dev claimed that such an officer cannot invoke the confidence of people. "It has been reported that an IPS officer who was recently chargesheeted by the Assam Police under POCSO Act for allegedly sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl has been appointed as the Superintendent of Police of a district," Dev said in the letter.
The "case, registered in January 2020, is still being probed by the Assam Criminal Investigation Department under sections 354, 354A (assault or criminal force to outrage modesty, sexual harassment) of the Indian Penal Code and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act," it read. The Mahila Congress chief who hails from the state sought immediate suspension of the appointment order of the police officer.
When contacted, Director General of Police Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta told PTI: "It is a government order. I cannot comment on a government order." A senior official said on condition of anonymity said that the police filed the chargesheet against the 2012 batch IPS officer around one-and-a-half months ago. An FIR was registered against the IPS officer on January 3 last year when he was superintendent of police in a hill district in Assam under the POCSO Act for alleged sexual harassment of the minor daughter of a woman officer the Assam Police Services.
It was alleged that the SP had thrown a new year party on December 31, 2019, in which the senior lady police official went with her teenaged daughter. The accused officer allegedly sexually harassed the girl in an inebriated condition inside a room of his official bungalow at the district headquarters. After the alleged incident, he was transferred out of the district and posted in the Assam Police Headquarters in Guwahati. In an order issued by Assam Home and Political Department Commissioner and Secretary M S Manivannan on May 14, several IPS officers including the accused one were transferred.
