Army officer fiancee appear record statements before judicial panel in custodial torture case

Bhubaneswar, Nov 14 (PTI) The army officer and his fiancee who were allegedly tortured in custody inside Bharatpur police station in the Odisha capital Bhubaneswar, on Thursday appeared before a judicial commission probing into the case and recorded their statement.
    Commission secretary Suvendu Mohanty said the panel had summoned 16 people including the army officer, his fiancee, the accused police officers and some students to appear before.
    Several of them including the army man and his girlfriend appeared before the Justice Chittaranjan Dash (Retd) Commission personally, while others were represented by their lawyers.
    The next date of hearing was fixed on November 30.
    Mohanty said the Commission may visit the Bharatpur police station.
    He said the commission has received over 500 affidavits on this incident.

    Suspended inspector in charge (IIC) Dinakrushna Mishra and the other four police personnel did not appear before the judicial commission. Their lawyers instead represented them before the commission.
The accused police officials have undergone polygraphy tests at a forensic science centre in Gujarat.
The army officer was allegedly tortured and his fiancee sexually assaulted at Bharatpur police station in Bhubaneswar after they visited it to lodge a complaint over a road rage incident involving the students on September 15.

    The state government has appointed the Commission to enquire into allegations levelled by the army officer and his fiancee.
While the army officer was allegedly beaten up by the police officials, three policewomen dragged his fiancee into a cell where some male police personnel, including the ex-IIC of the police station, reportedly thrashed and molested her.
Following a widespread uproar over the incident, Odisha Police have suspended five police personnel. Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi has entrusted the investigation of the matter to the Crime Branch of the police.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)