Moral Policing

‘Abba, tell police I’m not characterless’
Jammu, May 30
“Abba! please save me from police….I am being unnecessarily harassed and humiliated (meri izzat uchaali ja rahi hai). Tell them that your daughter is here with your permission….do tell them that I am not characterless lest they will take me into custody”.

‘Abba, tell police I’m not characterless’

Ashutosh Sharma
Tribune News Service

Jammu, May 30
“Abba! please save me from police….I am being unnecessarily harassed and humiliated (meri izzat uchaali ja rahi hai). Tell them that your daughter is here with your permission….do tell them that I am not characterless lest they will take me into custody”.
The last talk with her daughter in distress, Rahida Banoo (20), over telephone keeps buzzing in the head of Abdul Rafeeq of Balessa village in Doda district. He lost her daughter in a clear case of moral policing in broad daylight at Pul Doda yesterday.
Going by the eyewitness account, after getting an anonymous call, four policemen stepped into a tea stall at Pul Doda on the bank of the Chenab, where Rahida was sitting with her friend Najab Din. The policemen first grilled them for some time, allegedly to extract some money. Subsequently, they thrashed Najab publicly and requisitioned a Tata Sumo and started forcing them into it, eyewitnesses told The Tribune over the phone today.
To escape ‘humiliation’, a bitterly crying Rahida secured her release from the grip of a policeman and jumped into the gushing Chenab. Her body has not been recovered so far. Besides heart-wrenching memories for many, she left behind a black dupatta on the bank of the river.
In spite of this harrowing incident, the boy, a resident of Ukhral village in Ramban district, was taken to police station. He, however, was released after some hours. He could not be contacted.
Rahida was pursuing B.Ed from Kishtwar. She had gone to Pul Doda to give the BEd admission form of a college to her friend, Najab Din. They were also classmates in the undergraduate course.
An eyewitness said Rahida pleaded with the police and even touched their feet to let her go home. She even called up her father and made police personnel talk with him, but they were insistent on taking the duo to police station.
Sobbing, Rafeeq narrated the incident. “I got a call from my daughter around 3:30 pm. I told the chowki officer on line that she had come there to give some documents to her classmate, but he (the police officer) did not listen to him. The officer asked me to visit the SHO in police station to take my daughter’s custody”.
“We were on our way to Pul Doda when we got a call that our daughter was no more,” he said, adding that, “My daughter was mentally tortured and pressured to jump into the river”. “Those who are responsible for the death of my daughter should be given exemplary punishment so that children of others do not meet the same fate,” he said.
Former MLC Mohammad Iqbal Bhat, at the home of the bereaved family, said, “This is highhandedness on the part of the police. She was not found indulging in any indecent activity. She was just sitting with her friend at a tea shop”.

SHRC seeks report from DGP

Taking suo mottu cognisance of the shocking case of Rahida Banoo jumping into the Chenab after being humiliated by the police, the State Human Rights Commission has sought a report from the Commissioner, Home Department, and DGP Kuldeep Khoda in the case.

Divisional Commissioner, Jammu, Pawan Kotwal has also asked the Deputy Commissioner, Doda, to inquire into the entire incident and the circumstances that forced the girl to end her life.

Kotwal has specifically asked the Deputy Commissioner to identify the person, who called up the police. “He is also responsible for causing the incident, as he raised a hue and cry over the issue”.