- Bribe Fighter
- 10 years ago
- 9608 views
On the 25th of December 2013, I along with my two friends were coming…
On the 25th of December 2013, I along with my two friends were coming out of a restaurant at the Park Street, Kolkata at 0100 Hrs, when we saw around 10 youngsters being arrested by the police. We ignored it and tipped the guard at that restaurant and started walking by, when a group of police constables (none of them wearing any name tallies and some without uniforms) rounded us up and took us to the Park street police station in the police van. At the police station the youngsters,who claimed they were coming out of the church , were left as soon as an elderly person known to them came and had some private confabulations with the cops.
We started Audio/Video recording the event on our phones, as we were neither being kept inside the lock up nor being let free (we were held up at a corner where we have reasons to believe that the police CCTV did not fully cover). So we asked the cops the reason for bringing us to the police station. None of them replied to us. It is to be noted that :-
1) None of the Police Officers and Constables were wearing any name tallies (except for one named, as far as I can remember, Kajal Kr Rai).
2) No cop was letting us know the reason for us being detained.
3) On asking the cops to let us talk to some authority, that being our right, one Police Officer named Mr. Somnath Tiwari ( name informed to us later) got angry and started manhandling and abusing the two among us.The cops noticed that we were recording the events and started asking for our mobiles.
Mr Somnath Tiwari apparently seemed drunk along with some other cops too, challenged us that you have "No Rights, No Rules" being their exact words. He then told us since you boys are talking of Law and Rights so he will teach us a lesson. After that he started shouting that we have held him by collar and broke his watch and then he asked another cop to put Section 353 IPC and put us in the lockup.The cops then forcefully tried to take our mobile away,which on denying,they confirmed that they will put section 353 IPC on us.
4) Once inside the lockup , as the situation calmed down, we were told by some constables that you literate people have this problem of acting smart. He told us that we only had to pay some bribe to be let free but instead of that we had started recording and asking for our rights,so therefore, the officers took it as a challenge to teach us a lesson.
5) All our phone records were deleted after they forcefully took our passwords assuring us that nothing would happen to us.The same way they made us forcefully sign the Memo of Arrest without letting us read the details.
6)We were not allowed to inform anyone of our arrest , the cops again using the same words "No Rules No Rights" denying our requests to inform anyone . The Police even themselves did not Inform our Respective homes even though it was just a phone call away.
7) We were then sent to Alipore Presidency Correctional Home on 25 Dec 13 .
8) All three of us were Starting our careers in the Merchant Navy, and all of us have sailed as Trainees for a period of more than 6 months.We were in Kolkata to prepare and appear for our Officers Exams held by Mercantile Marine Department. We were thankfully granted Bail on the 31st Dec 2013 on production of our admit cards for our exam commencing 01 January 14.
9) Once on Bail we got our Mobile phones back and as we suspected all the evidence of Police Highhandedness was deleted by the cops. So without using my mobile further I sent my mobile for recovery to a professional. Unfortunately I got the Video files but it was corrupted, even though the date and time stamp and name of the file are of the relevant date and time. However, the positive side was that our Audio was partially recovered and it is playing even though in between there are noise patches. But it has evidence of police making false charges on us and our basic rights being violated.
Our bail has been confirmed on 05 January 2014. Charge sheet as been filed against us. But so far we haven't taken any counter action as we are gathering more evidence and evaluating and weighing different options. We are also a little afraid that Kolkata police might Fabricate us in some other false case or might try to hurt us using criminal force, in case we take a counter action.
Because of this case , we apprehend that our careers might be at stake as companies may not like to enroll Officers with cases pending against them. Despite being innocent, we stand to lose our parents earnings in proving our innocence and fighting cases in courts thousands of miles away from our home. I am a resident of NCR and the cases are in Kolkata courts.