Barhait OC suspended after video clip of him thrashing girl goes viral

Dumka: The officer in-charge of Barhait police station was suspended on Monday after a video of him thrashing and abusing a 20-year-old girl in front of other cops on July 22 went viral in the morning, police said.

In the video, more than half a dozen cops stood in silence as their boss Harish Pathak, in civil clothes, physically assaulted the girl ‘for having an affair with a boy from her locality’.

A few weeks ago, the victim’s mother had lodged a complaint at the said police station against her daughter’s lover Ramu Mandal and his father, accusing them of kidnapping her, following which, Ramu’s father was detained for questioning, according to police sources. Later on July 22, the cops had summoned the girl for recording her statement. However, when the girl in her statement said she is in love with Ramu, Pathak became furious. He grabbed the girl by her hair and slapped her indiscriminately on the face. He was even heard using filthy language in the video while beating her.

On July 25, the girl wrote to Sahibganj SP Anuranjan Kispotta, narrating her ordeal but no action concrete action was taken till the video went viral. The SP, however, said that he had ordered a probe soon after the girl approached him. He added, “I had already directed the Barhwarwa SDPO to look into the allegations.”

Local sources in Barhait — which is chief minister Hemant Soren’s constituency — said that Pathak has been in several controversies in the past but remained untouched due to political patronage.

Former chief minister and BJP functionary Babulal Marnadi dubbed the incident as a failure of law and order in the state. “It appears that the state has slipped into the hands of draconian policing system that a cop like Harish Pathak is blessed with the post of the officer in-charge in a police station within the chief minister’s own constituency,” he said.