The Chandigarh Police may have been targeted by many in the media, and on social media, over their mishandling of the Varnika Kundu stalking case, involving a powerful BJP leader's son, but the police force certainly has heroes within its ranks, who stood up to the occasion to get the name-dropping brats behind bars in the first instance.
Kumar, who was patrolling the area in the vicinity of the border of Chandigarh, and the adjoining town of Panchkula (in Haryana), past midnight in his Police Control Room (PCR) vehicle, responded to an alert from the control room about a woman in distress. With a traffic red light coming to their aid, Kumar approached the SUV of the accused, who were drunk, and took out the keys of the vehicle, leaving little scope for them to flee.
Police sources say that the accused and his friend tried to throw their weight around with the PCR personnel (Kumar and Baisakhi Ram).
But Kumar and Ram paid no heed to the accused, and informed the control room. Another police vehicle, with Assistant Sub-Inspector Ishwar Singh and Constable Devinder, who had started chasing the Tata Safari Storm SUV of the accused, also reached the spot and took the accused into custody. They were brought to the Sector 26 police station where they were later booked on charges of stalking (Section 354-D) and drunken driving (Section 185 of the Motor Vehicles Act).
Even before these policemen on the ground came into action, the control room team of Constable Ajay and Sub-Inspector Vijay Kumar were the first to react promptly to Varnika's distress call on the police helpline number – 100. They alerted the PCR vehicles and the movement of the victim's car and the SUV of the accused.
But despite the flak that the Chandigarh Police got for five days after it softened the case against the accused by not applying stiffer sections, the Facebook post of Varnika herself said a lot about the help from the police.
(This article was published in an arrangement with IANS.)
(Love your mother tongue? This Independence Day, tell The Quint why and how you love your bhasha. You may even win a BOL t-shirt! Sing, write, perform, spew poetry – whatever you like – in your mother tongue. Send us your BOL at bol@thequint.com or WhatsApp it to 9910181818.)
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)