They beat me up...groped me, including my penile areas: Gay victim spills beans on Chandigarh cops

A homosexual man, who had alleged sexual assault by the Chandigarh police in 2014, has now approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court simply to file an FIR in the case. The man, incidentally, is the cousin of the high profile Khuda Lahora gangrape victim, who too was abused by the Chandigarh police.

The man alleges that in 2014, after five Chandigarh policemen gangraped his sister over a period of two and a half months in Khuda Lahora area, he actively pursued the case to get justice for his sister, which was taken up by politicians and the media alike. Three of the five accused, Jagtar, Akshay, Himmat, Sunil and Anil, were part of the PCR, first responders in case of a sexual assault complaint.

The case saw the ouster of the five accused, which the victim angered the police further, the victim alleges. He says that he was first beaten up, and asked to give up the case, in which he was a witness. After he refused, the relatives of some of the accused assaulted him. “I then filed an application before the district court, seeking protection from the police constable concerned,” says the victim. “The district court judge directed the SSP Chandigarh to provide me with protection, but that was never provided.”

The worst was, however, yet to come. On July 7, 2014, the accused was picked up by four policemen, while travelling on his scooty. The cops took him to the police station, but not before assaulting him. “They first beat me up, impounded my vehicle and then groped me, including my penile areas. Then they took me to the Sector 34 police station, where they assaulted me for hours,” he said. “A policewoman said I was not a man, and said that my cousin was lying.”

The victim was eventually fired from his job as a teacher, which was on contract basis, at the Government Model Senior Secondary School of Sector-10, Chandigarh, leading to economic instability in his family. “We were also thrown out of the rented house we lived in, and my family faced a lot of problems,” he says. Eventually, he had to flee his home for a metro as he fears for his life. His cousin eventually turned hostile because of the harassment. 

“I don’t get to meet my parents, and I lie low, because if they find out where I live, I will be harmed again,” he said.

The victim was initially helped by the Human Rights Law Network (HRLN), which filed RTIs and wrote to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC). In a letter dated October 14, 2014, the NHRC had asked the inspector general of police, Chandigarh, to take appropriate action. “The authority concerned is directed to take appropriate action within 8 weeks and to inform the complainant of the action taken in the matter,” the letter signed by the assistant registrar (law), NHRC said. However, no action was taken.

The victim has now approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court seeking direction to the police for the registration of the case, and that appropriate action be taken in the case. The high court has taken up the matter twice, and has asked the victim’s counsel to place on record more documents to corroborate his allegations. The matter is likely to come up on July 19.

“The police have now alleged that my client was roaming suspiciously with another man in the night, and he was therefore arrested. He has gone through a lot of injustice,” said his counsel Arjun Sheoran.

LGBTQ activist Laxmi Narayan Tripathi, who is helping the victim for over a year, said, “We totally support his case. Look at the case, they have harassed him because of his homosexual traits.”

(With inputs by Prabhati Nayak Mishra)