A woman beat up an Assistant Sub-Inspector with her shoes and tore off his uniform in full public glare at the busy Dak Khana Chowk in the evening today.
The woman, who was driving a high-end car bearing a fancy Chandigarh registration number, was asked to halt by the officer, ASI (Traffic) Avtar Singh, after she had committed a traffic violation.
Instead of stopping her vehicle, she disdainfully drove it for some distance, after which she calmly walked back to where the ASI was standing. In a burst of anger, she slapped the officer and then started beating him up. Her male accomplice tiptoed his way past the surging crowd and managed to flee.
The woman also let out expletives at the ASI and dared him to take action against her. She repeatedly told him that she knew a prominent politician of the area.
The ASI initially tried to placate the woman. However, she went on beating him and even managed to pin him down, after which she tore off his clothes.
Traffic policemen accompanying the officer informed the Gurdaspur city police station, following which the SHO sent some more police personnel to defuse the situation. The woman owns a beauty parlour in a locality adjoining the police station.
Finally, police personnel managed to escort the woman to the police station where she was kept in a lock-up. Initially, senior officers were reluctant to register a case, but when the news spread that a “woman had torn the uniform of an ASI in Bollywood style”, they relented.
Senior officers initially tried to facilitate a compromise, but when things threatened to snowball into a controversy, the police decided to register a case. The woman kept on maintaining even in the lock-up that “the ASI himself had torn his clothes.”
SSP Jagdeep Singh Hundal confirmed that a case had been registered under Section 353 IPC (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of duty). The woman will be produced in court tomorrow. If convicted, she faces a jail term up to two years and a fine.
