Last Saturday, January 31, a woman journalist had gone to the Latasil Police Station in Guwahati on a reporting assignment. According to a complaint that she filed in the same police station later in the day, the officer in-charge of the police station, along with another police official, “physically assaulted her”, “attempted to disrobe” her and “touched her in her private parts”. (Newslaundry has a copy of the complaint.)

Speaking to Newslaundry, the journalist who works for the Guwahati-based news channel, DY365, said she had gone to the police station as part of a story she was doing on the allegedly poor conditions of police barracks in the state. “I was doing a feature on the police barracks since the administration had announced an overhaul of the barracks last year, but there has been no tangible action,” she said.

According to the journalist, she and a cameraperson had gone into one of the quarters in the barracks (housed in the same compound as the police station) to interview a resident. “There I discovered that the quarter was not being occupied by the rightful allottee. When I enquired, the lady living there got agitated and called Sub-Inspector Samsuddin Ahmed who happens to be the rightful allottee.”

The journalist then alleges that Ahmed and other police personnel including the officer in-charge, Chidananda Bora, assaulted her and the cameraperson and forcibly dragged them inside the police station. “They touched me inappropriately and threatened to kill me if I didn’t delete the footage my cameraperson had recorded,” she contended.

The journalist then called up her colleagues, and within a few hours, a crowd of journalists had gathered around the police station, forcing the cops to register a complaint.

Sources also told Newslaundry that the woman who the journalist wanted to interview and who was purportedly living in Ahmed’s quarter also lodged a complaint against the journalist, alleging her of trespassing private property.

The Chief Minister’s office issued a press statement on February 2, announcing a probe into the matter by Additional Chief Secretary Rajiv Bora. Bora has been asked to file his findings within a month.

Guwahati Police Commissioner Jyotirmoy Chakravarty told Newslaundry that a First Information Report has been registered but no arrests have been made. “One officer has been suspended, and the other has been sent to the police ‘reserve’ camp.” He said action would be contingent on the state government’s enquiry report.

On the same day, February 2, there was also a protest outside the Assam Secretariat, where the police detained 30 journalists. They were, however, released in the evening.

Nava Thakuria, President, Electronic Media Forum Assam, told Newslaundry that the organisation has written to Sadananda Gowda, Union Minister for Law and Justice, asking for a law that gives special protection to “journalists on dangerous assignments”.

While it will take at least a month for the case to reach a logical conclusion, this is not the first time an officer of Assam Police has come under the scanner for assault on a woman. Only last year, a superintendent-level officer of the force was booked for assaulting a woman, in an inebriated state.