‘Woman harassed on social media’: Dissatisfied with IO’s probe, court asks Chandigarh SSP to look into matter

Coming down heavily on the investigating officer of a case where a city-based woman was harassed on social media, a local court has asked the Chandigarh senior superintendent of police to look into the matter and take suitable action.

The complainant’s counsel Dikshit Arora said that the complainant and her husband run a music company together. “In 2017, the accused, Gundeep Singh of Patiala, an aspiring singer, contacted them and requested them to shoot a music video. Later, he started threatening to ruin their reputation,” the advocate said.

The complaint mentions that on November 9, 2020, he used vulgar language against the woman during an Instagram live session due to which she faced harassment. He also stole some hard drives from their house and demanded ₹1 crore from the complainant’s husband.

On January 5, 2021, a case was registered against the accused under Sections 380 (theft in dwelling house, etc), 384 (extortion), 506 (criminal intimidation), 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 67 of the Information Technology (IT) Act.

The woman told the court that she was “not satisfied” with the cancellation report and requested that further proceedings be carried out by a senior woman officer, preferably of IPS rank.

Alleging that the investigating officer had not conducted a fair investigation, the woman submitted: “As per the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL ) report, the voice of the accused duly matched the recording. Allegations regarding extortion of money from her and her husband were not investigated by the Investigating Officer.”

Rejecting the cancellation report filed by Chandigarh Police, the court of Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMIC) Parmod Kumar observed in reference to the investigating officer (IO): “It prima facie transpires that his conduct is not above board.”

“Since the investigating officer has neither considered the audio/video recording on the Instagram live nor the CFSL report. However, before parting with this order, I am constrained to facts and circumstances, it prima facie transpires that his conduct is not above board and the senior superintendent of police, Chandigarh, is requested to look into the matter and take suitable action,” the court observed.

The order said: “In view of the allegations raised by the complainant in-person, the matter needs to be intensively investigated. Accordingly, the cancellation report is not accepted by the court.”

“The SSP, Chandigarh is requested to depute any senior woman police officer to further investigate the allegations of the complainant and submit the compliance report on or before March 1,” the order mentioned.