Assam: Adivasi minor girl tortured at policeman’s home
Bokakhat police have launched an investigation into the alleged torture of a 15-year-old Adivasi girl employed as a domestic help by police official and family.
by Anupam Chakravartty August 4, 2023
Bokakhat: A sub-inspector working in the Nagaon district of Assam was brought in for questioning on Friday afternoon by Bokakhat police, under the Golaghat district, for allegedly assaulting a minor Adivasi girl employed as a domestic help in his house.
Golaghat Superintendent of Police Pushkin Jain told EastMojo that the police are taking the matter seriously even as Adivasi and tea tribe organisations have demanded immediate suspension of the accused police official.
According to the complaint filed by Bibhishan Oraon, the girl’s father, his 15-year-old daughter had been tied up to a betel nut tree and tortured by Assam Police Sub-Inspector Jayanta Bora’s family at his residence in Moh Maiki village near Bokakhat.
Oraon told EastMojo that his daughter escaped the police official’s house on August 2 and reached her house in Geleki, 15 kilometres from the police official’s house on foot. “The family of a policeman shaved my daughter’s head. There are several injury marks on her body,” he said.
The girl’s family first approached the local labour commissioner who referred the case to the Bokakhat Police on August 3. According to Bokakhat Police Station In-charge Biswajit Deka, the girl was sent to Golaghat to meet child welfare officials and undergo a medical examination.
Adivasi and tea tribe organisations have urged Bokakhat Police officials to immediately suspend accused police officials. “We are shocked by the incident. We look up to the police to protect our children and minors. Yet, it is a police official in whose house this heinous crime has taken place. We demand that the police official should be brought to justice immediately and suspended from duty,” said a representative of the Adivasi Students’ Association, Emmanuel Barla.
Golaghat SP Pushkin Jain, who visited the Bokakhat Police Station on Thursday, said all crime angles will be investigated, including provisions against atrocities especially against the Adivasi community. “We have passed the information regarding the case to the higher authorities. We will not be able to initiate suspension proceedings since the police official is serving in the Nagaon district,” Jain told EastMojo.
