'Suspension not enough, book cops for exploiting juniors'

Delay in booking senior officials creates ripples in Kolhapur; women's panel inspects police training school

Days after two senior police officers were suspended for their misconduct, the demand to book them on charges of sexual exploitation of fresh recruits is getting shriller.u00a0PI Dnyaneshwar Munde and Vijay Parkale were suspended from duty for alleged misconduct while their boss SP Yashaswi Yadav was demoted and transferred to Amravati as DSP CID for ignoring the misconduct of his subordinates. Home Minister R R Patil announced the decision on Friday in Mumbai.



After the lone arrested person in the case, Yuvraj Kamble, made a shocking revelation by naming two senior officers Munde and Parkale in his statement to the police, additional superintendent of police Maithali Zaa was appointed as investigating officer in the case. He probed the call details of these two officers. Zaa is believed to have also accessed a CCTV footage grabbed from one hotel in the city, which showed Parkale taking unknown women inside the hotel.

The fact finding committee, appointed by State Commission for Women, arrived in Kolhapur yesterday. The five-member panel including former Bombay HC Judge Ratnakar Sindkar, assistant secretary State Commission for Women S S Padal, counselor A L Dangat, advocate Nina Gauda, visited CPR hospital in the afternoon.
Former Judge Sindkar said, "The committee will suggest recommendations to ensure that atmosphere in the training centre be safe and secure for new recruits."

This development surfaced after Yasmin Abrar, chairperson of National Commission for Women, took suo motto cognisance of the alleged sexual exploitation of fresh recruits at Police Training Centre in Kolhapur a few days ago.

Abrar had issued letters to the Chief Minister and the Home Minister to look into the matter and had asked them to apprise the panel of the action taken by the authorities concern at the earliest.
Acting on the directive, State Commission for Women constituted a committee to find out the truth in sexual exploitation of fresh recruits in Kolhapur Training Centre. The members met several officers and instructors in the training school.u00a0

The members also visited medical officers at CPR Hospital, where the medical tests was conducted on 71 new recruits on March 21 before they joined Police Academy in Nagpur for further training.