NE NEWS SERVICE
SURAT, JUNE 24
A police constable was suspended and arrested for allegedly thrashing a bank employee in Surat district after Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman sought prompt action in the matter.
Bank officials said police constable Ghanshyam Shyora entered the Canara Bank’s Saroli branch on Monday in plain clothes and asked female employee Santoshi Kumari to print his passbook. When told the printer wasn’t working, he abused her and began slapping and pushing her. The video of the attack went viral on social media.
“My office is being informed that the Commissioner of Police visited @canarabanks Saroli branch and assured staff of full cooperation; the accused police constable is placed under suspension,” Sitharaman tweeted on Wednesday. She said her office had spoken to the Surat Commissioner of Police RB Brahmbhatt who assured that the accused constable would be suspended immediately.
Brahmbhatt said the constable has been suspended and placed under arrest. He also visited the bank’s branch to get information about what happened on Monday.
NCW for probe into manhandling of female bank staff by cop in Surat
Soon after a video of a police officer threatening bank employees in Surat surfaced on the internet, the National Commission of Women (NCW) on Wednesday took suo motu cognisance of the incident.
The NCW has written to the Director-General of Police of Gujarat, directing an immediate investigation into it and strict action against the guilty.
“The NCW has taken serious note of the video shared by BankersUnited@Official and the several tweets that were brought to the notice of the commission thereafter,” it said.
The NCW has also asked the top cop to apprise it of the action taken. “The commission condemns this alleged brutality on a female banker who was merely doing her job. NCW reiterates its stand that every woman is entitled to a life of dignity and safety at the workplace,” the commission said.
A case was registered at Puna police station in Surat on Tuesday under Indian Penal Code Sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 504 (intentional insult to provoke breach of peace), a police official said.
In the CCTV footage released by the bank, the police constable is seen entering the restricted area of cash counter and pushing Santoshi Kumari on the floor after grabbing her by the neck. Shyora is also seen manhandling another employee who was apparently trying to reason with him.
In another video, shot by a bank employee, the police constable is seen misbehaving and threatening some bank staffers after entering the restricted area.
In a video message, Shyora claimed the bank employees were non-cooperative and abused him when he went to the branch to help his uncle update his passbook.
“Despite repeated requests by my uncle, the branch employees were not updating his passbook and making him visit the bank for three-four days for such a simple work. When I went to the bank, the employees claimed office hours are over. Though I showed my identity card, they used derogatory words and asked me to get out. They then made a video of the incident to malign me. I want the truth to come out,” Shyora said.
Kumari said neither Shyora nor his uncle was ready to understand the problem.
“As our passbook printer was not working, we even gave a copy of the statement to his uncle when he first came to our branch recently. However, he kept on insisting to get his passbook printed. The constable also used abusive language over the phone before coming to the branch,” she said, claiming that Shyora pushed her so hard that she developed severe back pain.
“After abusing me on phone, he came to the branch and attacked me and damaged my phone as I was recording his act,” she said.
