Odisha custodial assault case: Polygraph test to be conducted on suspended cop

Odisha Police's Crime Branch is preparing to conduct a polygraph test on the Station House Officer (SHO) of the Bharatpur Police Station in Bhubaneswar, where the fiancée of an Army officer was allegedly sexually assaulted and harassed when the couple went to lodge a complaint on September 15. SHO Dinakrushna Mishra was among the five officers who were suspended in the wake of the incident.

According to police sources, the Crime Branch team will file an application in court today to conduct the test.

Mishra has given his consent for the test and will do the same in court as well, the sources added.

Station officials have claimed that the SHO was not at the station at the time of the incident, and he arrived at the premises the next morning at 6 am.

The incident occurred when the couple went to the Bharatpur Police Station on September 15 to lodge a complaint over a road rage incident that took place while they were returning home.

The woman has alleged that while she was sexually assaulted and harassed, her Army officer-fiancée was illegally locked up in a cell.

In response, the Odisha Police suspended Mishra, Sub-Inspector Baisalini Panda, Assistant Sub-Inspectors Salilamayee Sahoo and Sagarika Rath, and Constable Balaram Handa.

Chief Minister Mohan Majhi has also ordered a judicial probe by a retired judge.

ABUSE ALLEGATIONS BY ARMY OFFICER'S FIANC‰E

In an interview with India Today TV, the woman, who was arrested by the police but granted bail by the Orissa High Court on September 19, recalled being beaten, choked and pulled by the hair during the harrowing ordeal at the station.

"My tooth fell off and was flung out by a female officer. My bra was pulled up, my pants were lowered, and my bare chest was stamped and pumped for 20 minutes by the male officer," she alleged.

She said she had sought help from the police, but instead of finding protection, she found herself at the mercy of those entrusted to uphold the law.

Despite facing repeated assaults allegedly by police officers, the woman remained defiant. "I don't care about the campaign they are running against me. It is the easiest thing to assassinate the character of a woman," she said.