AGARTALA:
A police officer was suspended for allegedly torturing a video journalist in custody at the East Agartala Police Station, on the intervening night of May 17-18.
West District Superintendent of Police, Bogati Jagadeeswar Reddy, informed on Wednesday, that departmental proceedings have also been initiated against Arindam Roy, officer-in-charge of College Tilla Outpost, for thrashing and torturing a journalist while the latter was performing his professional duties.
Late on Tuesday night, the journalist, Nitai Dey, who works for an Agartala-based news agency, was picked up by police when he had gone to a petrol pump in the Radhanagar area to cover news of the persisting petrol crisis in the state and was also waiting to refuel his motorbike.
“On the intervening night of Tuesday-Wednesday at Radhanagar Petrol Pump near Tripura Gramin Bank, I was in a queue to refuel my motorbike. When I was approaching the fuel dispenser, a policeman identified as Arindam Roy, grabbed me and pulled me out of the queue and started using expletives against me without any provocation or fault on my part,” the FIR registered by Dey read.
Dey also claimed that he was made to suffer inhuman torture throughout the night at the police station.
“Roy put me into the police van along with some armed personnel who assaulted and threatened to kill me inside the van. Upon reaching East Agartala police station, Roy pushed me into the OC’s chamber and poured foreign liquor into my mouth, and started beating me. At one point, I fell down and he pressed his boots on my chest and threatened to kill me unless I divulge names of some journalists working for a few particular news channels and web media. He offered to release me on the condition that I tell him the name,” the FIR copy read.
As soon as the news spread, local journalists led by Agartala Press Club president Subal Kumar Dey, vice president Arun Nath and secretary Pranab Sarkar reached East Agartala Police Station and demanded suspension of the police officers responsible for the alleged “torture” and held a sit-in in front of the Tripura Police headquarters.
The FIR copy also reads, “The policeman (Arindam Roy) also unrobed me in presence of female staff and used abusive words in the most uncivilised manner.
Later in the night, Dey was brought to IGM hospital, Agartala for medical examination and was held at East Agartala Police Station before being produced in the court on Wednesday morning where he was granted bail.