A constable identified as Parmesh attached with the Charminar police station has been accused of sexually harassing a protesting woman doctor.
On Wednesday, students of the Government Ayurveda Hospital were protesting outside Government Nizamia General Hospital, Charminar, against the shifting of the hospital to Erragadda. Owing to renovation, the hospital is being shifted. However, the students are against the decision and have been protesting for a week.
As the Director of AYUSH, Dr Varshini failed to pay heed to their appeals, the students sat on a dharna. However, things turned ugly, when the police attempted to disperse the protesting doctors. A scuffle ensued. Though police had pressed in female personnel to handle the female protesting doctors, male police were also seen dragging away the students.
In one particular incident, a constable identified as Parmesh, was caught on camera running his hand over the sides of a female doctor and then pinching her while she is being dragged away. The incident has triggered outrage.
The Congress party faulted the police for engaging male police personnel to disperse the female doctors.
Congress national spokesperson Sravan Dasoju said that the decision to deploy male police to arrest women medicos was a serious offence. He said that the accused constable’s act was ‘nothing less of sexual harassment’. He demanded that the accused constable must be removed from police service, besides filing a criminal case under IPC section 354A (sexual harassment).
Meanwhile, following wide outrage, police have initiated an inquiry into the incident.
Hyderabad DCP Amber Kishor Jha told media, “We are verifying whether the act was intentional or unintentional. While performing duty there’s a possibility of such a thing. We are verifying everything, but the circulation of the video is wrong. I request everyone to not share the video.”
Speaking about the incident, the woman who was sexually harassed by the constable told New Indian Express, “The director of the Department of Ayush had promised to meet and talk about our demands a week back, but failed to do so. So, we went to meet the Director at the hospital in Charminar, where she again refused to speak with us. So, we started a dharna by sitting in front of the vehicle. The dharna mostly constituted female students. When we refused to move, the police including female constables dragged us out from the spot. However, there were men who were inappropriately touching and dragging us out. That is when we started shouting and lashing out.”