The Jaipur police have registered a criminal case against Congress MLA from Jamwa Ramgarh, Gopal Meena, and five police officers on charges of harassment of a Dalit man. The complainant alleged that the legislator had assaulted him and forced him to lick his shoes, while an officer urinated on him.
The first information report (FIR) was registered on July 27 under various Sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act on the direction of a Judicial Magistrate’s court. The 51-year-old Dalit man had approached the court after the police allegedly refused to register his complaint.
The incident is alleged to have occurred on June 30, when the complainant was allegedly picked up from his agricultural farm and taken to a place where Mr. Meena forced him to lick his shoes. After this, a Circle Officer allegedly urinated on him, according to the complaint.
In addition to the Circle Officer, the Station House Officers of four police stations have also been named in the FIR. The matter has since been sent to the CID (Crime Branch) for investigation.
Preliminary investigation
Mr. Meena has refuted the charges levelled against him in the FIR and said he did not know the man who had lodged the complaint against him. The Jaipur police said in a statement after preliminary investigation on Friday that the complaint had been made at the instance of a retired police officer who was facing criminal charges following a case registered against him by some local persons.
The retired police officer of the Director-General rank was reportedly putting pressure on the police to file a final report for closure of the case against him, as he was involved in a dispute with the local people over encroachment on a piece of land. The police said when the retired officer’s pressure did not work, he sent a man close to him to the court seeking directions for registration of FIR against the MLA and others.
