A woman has complained against the officers of an all-women police station in Barasat that they did not take any action on her complaint of gang-rape for close to a fortnight.
Action was finally taken after the superintendent of police intervened.
In her complaint filed on August 26, the woman said she was raped by seven members of a dance troupe with whom she was associated.
The incident took place at a spot adjoining Barasat railway station and the prime accused was a youth whom she had befriended on social media. Among the seven, there was a woman, she said in her complaint.
After Raj Narayan Mukherjee, the superintendent of Barasat police district, came to know about the complaint on Thursday, things started moving.
All the seven accused, including the youth and his wife, were arrested late on Thursday after a case of gang-rape, blackmail, criminal intimidation was drawn up following instructions from the superintendent of police.
Senior officers of Barasat police district said Mukherjee had sought details of the complaint from the officer in-charge of Barasat Women police station on Thursday and who was the investigating officer.
The officer-in-charge informed Mukherjee that sub-inspector Barnali Mukherjee was the investigating officer of the case.
“The sub-inspector was subsequently closed,” said a senior officer of the Barasat police district.
“A probe has been ordered against her.”
Closing a police officer means he or she will be taken off her duty and will not be posted either at the office of the superintendent of police or in the district police lines.
On September 6, the inspector-in-charge of Baguiati police station was suspended for his alleged negligence to probe the alleged kidnapping of two teenagers, Atanu Dey and Abhishek Naskar, whose bodies were found in a morgue nearly 15 days after they were reported missing.
A section of officers of the Barasat Women police station said the investigating officer did not want to take note of the complaint after it appeared that the key accused had married the complainant in Dakshineswar.
The family members of the accused have said the woman was forcing the youth to be in touch with her despite being married.
When he refused, a complaint of gang-rape was lodged.
Officers said rape is a heinous crime, which falls under the category of cognisable offences listed under CrPC.
“Credibility of the information given cannot be a condition for registration of a complaint, particularly when it is of rape,” said an officer.
