Heat on sr officers in cops’ sexual exploitation case

Call details, attendance sheets and station entries to be scrutinised; Sena demands SP's transfer in 48

Heat on sr officers in cops' sexual exploitation case

Call details, attendance sheets and station entries to be scrutinised; Sena demands SP's transfer in 48 hrs

Additional Superintendent of Police (Nashik Rural) Maithili Jha, who is investigating the Kolhapur women constables' sexual exploitation case, has asked for the call detail records of senior police officers and also the attendance sheets and station entries to verify the various claims made by the victims, the accused and politicians.

On the job: Additional Superintendent of Police (Nashik Rural) Maithili
Jha, the investigating officer in the case, says call records will reveal
whether officers had long chats with recruits. Pics/ Jignesh Mistry

The lone police constable arrested in the case, Yuvraj Kamble, has in his statement named Avinash Pawar, the fianc ufffd of one of the victims, and his associates Inspector Dnyaneshwar Munde and Deputy Superintendent of Police (Home) Vijay Parkale as the people actually behind the sexual exploitation of new women recruits at the Kolhapur Police Training School.

Demanding action: (From left) Opposition leaders Neelam Gorhe,
Eknath Khadse and Girish Bapat voice their demands for action against
senior police officers yesterday. Pic/Jignesh Mistry

It has also been found that the Supreme Court order stating two external members belonging to NGOs should be a part of the Police Training Schools mandatory grievance cell was violated in the Kolhapur case. The victim had handed over her complaint application to Dy SP Meena Makwana as there were no NGO members included in the grievance redressal cell committee.

The investigations
Jha yesterday shed some light on the investigations in progress. "After interrogating Kamble, we are now verifying his claims of senior officers being involved. We have asked for the call detail records of Pawar, Munde and Parkale, which will reveal whether they were calling the victim during night hours and if they had long chats over the phone," said Jha. "Since the victim has undergone abortion, the medical evidence is of no use to us. Also, the victim in her complaint has said that the girls were asked to be on bandobast duty at the Shahpuri police station, of which Inspector Munde was in-charge. We are checking the station diaries, which by law have to record the names of the constables on duty."

'Pretty girls chosen'
Out of a batch of 281 candidates, 71 girls were selected in July last year. Sources from the Kolhapur Police raining School said that Parkale selected girls who were "beautiful". They said Parkale used to call the new recruits to his home to clean it.

The sources also said Inspector Munde used to pick up girls to be deployed for bandobast in his jurisdiction and even put them on night duty. "All these orders were given orally," said a source.

Political heat
In the wake of the scandal, Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Eknath Khadse has demanded that those senior officers who have gone on sick leave should be transferred out of Kolhapur.Shiv Sena MLC Neelam Gorhe has alleged that Superintendent of Police Yashaswi Yadav is protecting the suspected senior officers.

"Yadav should be transferred in the next 48 hours, otherwise Shiv Sena activists will come on the roads to protest against him," she said.Minister of State for Home Satej Patil tried to pacify all the political leaders and said that if investigating officer Jha feels any undesirable pressure is being on her during the course of her investigations, she should discuss it with Pune's Police Commissioner Meeran Chadha Borwankar.