Row over ‘harassment’ of Indore businessman: 2 cops suspended for negligence
Stricter action may not have been taken as complainant sought 'leniency' for the police personnel
Ahmedabad Police Commissioner G.S. Malik suspended two traffic personnel for negligence following a viral harassment complaint on National Expressway 1. NEARLY A month after a social media post by an Indore-based businessman, detailing the “harassment” he faced at the hands of two police personnel on duty at the National Expressway 1 (NE-1), went viral, both staffers of the Ahmedabad City Police were on Friday placed under suspension by Commissioner G S Malik.
In two orders issued on May 8, Malik suspended head constable Surendrasinh Ramsinh and constable Raju Kalubhai, both posted in I Division traffic police station, for negligence in the line of duty.
The orders state that the action was taken on the basis for an inquiry into a social media post put up by one Sandeep Manudhane on X, where he had shared a LinkedIn post of Indore-based overseas education consultant Pankaj Singh Parihar, who described the “harassment and invasion of privacy and insinuations of criminal activity” made by the two police personnel after they stopped him and his colleague who were on their way back home from Ahmedabad.
However, according to sources, the two police personnel were only suspended and no stricter action may have been taken because Parihar himself sought leniency on behalf of the cops.
On Friday, Parihar confirmed to The Indian Express that he had written an email requesting Commissioner Malik for “some leniency” towards the personnel after he received several calls from acquaintances and family of the two police personnel saying that the duo had “learnt their lesson”.
The Ahmedabad City Police saw the X post by Manudhane on April 15 and had immediately contacted Parihar, and took his statement after visiting him in Indore two days later. The inquiry was handled by DCP (Cybercrime) Lavina Sinha.
The suspension orders pointed out that police personnel are required to, during traffic stops, wear body-worn cameras, keep them on at all times, wear uniform at all times, maintain a patrol book and make notes about each vehicle checked on their register.
The incident itself took place on April 11 when Parihar and his colleague were returning to Indore after their fortnightly visit to their Ahmedabad office on Ashram Road. This police checkpost, he said, is near the expressway garden, 3 km before Ahmedabad Toll plaza NE1.
Describing his experience in a post on LinkedIn on Sunday (April 12), Parihar claimed, “Yesterday, we were returning from our Ahmedabad office when we were stopped at a police checkpoint on the NE1 Expressway. If you have driven to Gujarat with an out-of-state number plate you know such checks happen especially given the strict liquor laws. We cooperated fully. They search every corner of our car. We had nothing to hide. What followed was something I was completely unprepared for…”
He alleged, “The officers took our mobile phones and began going through them in detail. Not a cursory glance but opening chats, reading conversations, checking our gallery and playing audio messages.” In his post, Parihar claimed that this search went on for 50 to 60 minutes and at one point the officers were sitting inside the car scrolling their phones while they themselves were outside the vehicle with no control over what the staff was doing with their phones, describing the experience “as a different kind of stress”.
Parihar told the Indian Express that the two policemen had even read private messages belonging to his colleague and giggled at them. Parihar also alleged that when he told the cops that they were in the study abroad consulting business, “they went through his colleague’s office diary which includes notes of expenses and student loans and forex transactions.” The police staff, he said, mentioned the word “kabutarbazi” among themselves “which felt to them like the police were trying to build a case out of thin air.” “Kabutarbazi” is slang for illegal immigration.
“I felt violated,” Parihar had told The Indian Express while recounting how the police personnel not only read the messages but also played audio messages from their phones.
Parihar also alleged that the pressure escalated when the police threatened to take them to the cyber cell saying that they would be checked there and “get caught”. The cops then allegedly drove their car around 100 metres from the checkpoint and repeated, “if there is something tell us now, we will settle it here.” At that point, Parihar asked them to take them to the cyber cell because there was nothing against them. It was only then that the policemen let them go. “But even that didn’t end with dignity. As we were leaving, they casually asked for chai pani. After everything that had just happened, this was perhaps the most telling moment. We handed over our theplas and left,” states Parihar.
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