Cops gave senior citizen a heart attack?

65-year-old is now in hospital after he was allegedly bullied by RK Puram police regarding a case of domestic violence

Rightly or wrongly, cops in Delhi have a reputation of being a bit unsympathetic. On Friday they allegedly gave a senior citizen, a heart attack. The incident took place at RK Puram police station, when 65-year-old Chandra Prakash, a resident of Adarsh Basti in south Delhi was called for interrogation regarding a case of alleged domestic violence.u00a0


Matters of the heart: The police station at RK Puram's sector 12.
Pic/Imtiyaz Khan

"I got married in March 19, 2004 with Manju. After that we always had fights over little things. On March 10 Manju took jewellery worth Rs 3.5 lakh and Rs 6.5 lakh in cash from our house and went to her maternal home. After that we lodged an FIR of robbery against her but no action has been taken yet. A police official told us that they were investigating the matter. One and a half months later she too lodged a complaint against me and my family regarding domestic violence and dowry harassment at a women's cell in Kirti Nagar area of west Delhi. After that the police started badgering us and often called my family to the police station for no reason," said Dushyant Kumar, son of Chandra Prakash.

Charges
The matter didn't end there. "On June 5 Manju came to our house along with some police officials and started shouting that it was her house and she wanted it back. After the whole drama, cops took us to the police station and started harassing us. The very next day the police officials again came and took me along with my brother and father. At the police station a police official told my father to come to a separate room in which Manju's brother Gulshan and Ravindra were already present. After that they started bullying my father. Due to this he got a heart attack at the police station but none of the officials came to help him out. We then rushed him to Safdarjung Hospital and admitted him in the ICU. His condition is now stable," said Prashant Kumar, elder son of Chandra Prakash.

Callous cops?
"My father is a heart patient and last year he had undergone a bypass surgery and the way in which Delhi police behaved was totally disappointing," he added. MiD DAY tried to get reactions from Manju and her family but we failed to reach them. "It was a case of dispute between two families and we are just investigating Chandra Prakash about the matter. The allegation made by his family is totally wrong. We didn't misbehave with any of them," a senior police official said on the condition of anonymity.

Sum and substance
Delhi Police released half-yearly crime figures last Saturday that showed 271 murders registered this year against 278 in the corresponding related stories six months last year, while the number of rape cases came down from 289 to 258. The crime per lakh population also decreased from last year's 313.6 to 311.23. The police also registered a three-fold increase in narcotics seizure this year, with 106 cases being registered and 148 arrests made last year against 440 and 511, respectively, this year.