Traffic cop suspended for sending minor to remand home

PATNA: Gandhi Maidan traffic police station SHO Shashi Shekhar Singh was suspended by Patna SSP Manu Maharaaj on Wednesday. The SHO had forwarded a 13-year-old boy to remand home under alleged pressure from Patna ADM (special programme) Virendra Kumar Paswan on Tuesday.
The minor’s family resides in a rented accommodation at PC Colony in Kankarbagh. His father runs a small shop at Bakhtiyarpur to make ends meet.
On police request, the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) released the boy on Wednesday evening. “We are investigating the ADM’s role in getting the boy arrested as the child was innocent,” the SSP said.
Sources said the ADM was in Kadamkuan area on Christmas. While learning to drive a two-wheeler of his friend, the boy lost balance and fell on the ADM, who was coming out of an ATM kiosk in the area.
Sources said the ADM informed the police after which the boy was taken into custody. The matter was later handed over to traffic police station where the boy, a private school student, was kept in custody for whole night.
The boy’s family members pleaded to the police personnel to release him, but they were allegedly under pressure. “The family members even went to meet the ADM at his residence on Tuesday, but he did not budge,” sources said.
“Later, the boy was produced before the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) and forwarded to remand home after lodging an FIR on the ADM’s written complaint,” sources said. They said the ADM’s injury report was also not prepared by the police.
Sources said the FIR was lodged under Section 279 (rash driving) of IPC, which attracts maximum six months imprisonment or Rs1000 fine or both, Section 337 (causing hurt by an act endangering life) that has maximum six months’ imprisonment or Rs500 fine or both and Section 338 (causing grievous injury by an act of endangering life) attracting maximum two years’ imprisonment or Rs1000 fine or both.
“Police have the power to grant bail from the police station itself in these sections. Though bailors were present at the police station, investigating officer Vinay Kumar Singh did not mention this fact in the documents while presenting the minor before the JJB,” a source said.