Agartala: West district Superintendent of Police Bogati Jagadeeswar Reddy has suspended the officer in charge of Collegetilla Town Outpost Arindam Roy for allegedly assaulting video journalist Nitai Dey on the intervening night of Wednesday.
“Whereas a departmental proceeding against Inspector Incharge Arindam Roy of West Tripura district is under contemplation for his gross misconduct of duty in dealing with arrested accused person and lapses in following legal procedures. Whereas, the officer failed to properly handle sensitive matter besides, not following the orders of the superior authority while he was posted at Officer in charge Collegetilla Town Outpost,” the order reads.
The SP further said, “He is suspended with effect from Wednesday afternoon. It is further ordered that during the period of suspension, the Head Quarters of Inspector in charge Arindam Roy of West Tripura District will be at A.D. Nagar Police lines under the control of the A.C DAR, West Tripura District and the said Arindam Roy shall not leave the Headquarters without obtaining the prior permission of the undersigned”. During the period of suspension, Roy will be entitled to draw subsistence allowance equal to a percentage of the leave salary viz. 50 percent.
Later, Chief Minister Dr. Manik Saha directed an inquiry into the allegation. Issuing a statement Chief Minister said, “Directed an inquiry into the allegations of harassment of journalists in Agartala on Wednesday. When the matter came to our notice, we directed the police administration to immediately investigate the allegation”.
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According to FIR filed by the victim journalist Nitai Dey against the police officer, he claimed that he manhandled him at a petrol station and later used third-degree treatment in the lockup. “In the intervening night of Wednesday at Radhanagar Petrol Pump near Tripura Gramin Bank, I was in a queue for refueling my motorbike. When I was approaching the pump, a policeman identified as Arindam Roy, who happened to be the In-charge of CollegeTilla Outpost grabbed me and pulled me out of the queue, and started to use abusive language without any provocation or fault on my part”, the FIR copy reads.
Dey in his FIR also claimed that he underwent torture throughout the night and described how the on-duty cops harassed him in the most uncivilized way. “He put me into the police van along with some armed personnel who assaulted and warned me of killing me inside the van. As I have been working for audiovisual media and doing news against police they attempted to thrash me inside the van with shoes but somehow I managed to survive. Upon reaching East Agartala police station, Roy pushed me into the OC's chamber and poured foreign liquor in my mouth, and started beating me."
"At one point, I fell down and he pressed his boots on my chest and warned of killing me unless I divulge the names of the journalists who are working for some news channels and web media. He offered my release with a condition that if I tell him the name of the journalists who work for some particular media outlets”, the FIR copy reads.
Later, local journalists led by Agartala Press Club President Subal Kumar Dey, Vice President Arun Nath, and Secretary Pranab Sarkar reached West Agartala Police Station and demanded the suspension of the police officers responsible for the whole incident. However, after hours of protests in front of the police headquarters and the police station, Inspector General of Tripura Police GK Rao met the protesting senior journalists and assured them that their demands would be fulfilled.
