The Bengaluru city police on Tuesday suspended three police personnel, days after they allegedly assaulted a 34-year-old domestic help on charges of stealing a diamond ring of her employer.
The suspended officers have been identified as Sanjay Rathod, Santosh Kudari, and Archana — all attached to Varthur police station, the police said.
The action was taken based on the report submitted by Priyadarshini, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Marathahalli, on Tuesday, which stated that the domestic help, Sundari Bibi, was assaulted on the first floor of the police station.
Sundari Bibi, a native of West Bengal, has been working in the apartment of a techie couple in Shobha Dreams Acre at Balagere for the past three months, the police said.
On October 30, Sundari Bibi was summoned to Varthur police station after her employer, Priyanka Jhanwal, accused her of theft.
Sundari Bibi, along with her husband, reached the police station, and the couple was detained and assaulted by the police personnel on the first floor. Sundari had told the media that, though she pleaded innocence, the police kept beating her with lathis, calling her an illegal Bangladeshi immigrant.
Migrant workers who heard the screams alerted city-based social activist R Kaleemulla, who confronted the police, and the couple was released.
Story continues below this ad
Sundari Bibi, a resident of a labour colony in Balagere Road, was taken to Bowring Hospital, where the doctors registered a Medico-Legal Case (MLC). Soon after the incident came to light, the Karnataka State Commission for Women (KSCW) issued a notice to the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Whitefield, to submit a report. In the letter, KSCW stated that the woman was assaulted on her private parts.