A police inspector at Pune’s Sahakarnagar police station has been booked after allegedly slapping a complainant on the station premises while in an inebriated condition, prompting an internal inquiry by senior officers.
The incident took place on Friday night after the complainant, an employee of a private company, arrived at the police station to report an alleged assault on a PMPML bus. Police said the inspector confronted the man, questioned why he wanted to lodge a complaint and slapped him. The inspector’s identity was not disclosed in the report.
Senior inspector Vitthal Pawar of Sahakarnagar police station said a non-cognisable offence was registered against the driver of a private luxury bus for allegedly assaulting the complainant before he reached the police station. The case against the bus driver followed an incident on Pune-Satara Road, where the luxury bus allegedly brushed against a PMPML bus.
According to Pawar’s account, the complainant was travelling in a window seat on the PMPML bus when the private bus made contact with the vehicle. The complainant allegedly abused the luxury bus driver. The private bus stopped some distance ahead, after which its driver entered the PMPML bus and allegedly assaulted the passenger.
The complainant then went to Sahakarnagar police station to report the incident. Police said the inspector’s alleged assault occurred while the complainant was seeking to register his complaint. The inspector has also been booked under the Maharashtra Prohibition Act. Police had not confirmed whether he was taken to a hospital for a medical examination.
Deputy commissioner of police (Zone II) Milind Mohite said the inspector had been scheduled to begin five days of leave from Saturday. Mohite said it was not known why the inspector had gone to the police station in an inebriated condition and confirmed that an internal inquiry had been ordered.
Assistant commissioner of police Gajanan Pawar is conducting the departmental inquiry, according to the DCP. The police department has not disclosed the inspector’s name, the specific sections applied in the case or the outcome of any medical examination.
The episode places two separate alleged assaults within the same complaint process: the alleged attack by the private bus driver and the subsequent alleged assault involving the police inspector. The registered cases and the internal inquiry will determine the circumstances of both incidents and the action, if any, against the officers or other individuals involved.
