Police Complaints Authority accuses cop of biased inquiry

CHANDIGARH: The Police Complaints Authority (PCA) has accused a Chandigarh police official of gross and arbitrary misconduct during the course of a probe. The authority said the official delayed inquiry on frivolous grounds for more than one and a half years. PCA has asked the city police chief to issue a 'censure' to sub-inspector Balwant Singh and initiate an inquiry against him.
According to the complaint, Vishal Joshi, a resident of Sector 50, married Neha Jhulka in January 2011. Ashok was a bank employee in Delhi while Neha was a company secretary in a hospital.
However, differences cropped up between the couple soon after the marriage and they started living separately from March, 2011.
Thereafter, Neha sent a criminal complaint to the SSP office, from where the case was referred to the Woman and Child Support Unit. A case was registered against Vishal.
"Although we wanted to solve the issue, investigating officer Balwant Singh asked Vishal to give a divorce. He harassed, humiliated and insulted us on various occasions. Vishal said he wanted to save his marriage and asked the police not to press him for a divorce but the official did not relent and continued to harass him," said Ashok Joshi, Vishal's father.
Ashok said the family did not take any dowry but in the court, Balwant opposed the bail application stating that dowry articles needed to be recovered. "We told Balwant to take away whatever dowry articles he wanted to but he refused. He even threatened to implicate our unmarried daughter in a false case," he alleged.
Later, Neha demanded 14 sarees. The complainant gave 16 but Balwant demanded two more from him.