The Meghalaya State Commission for Women (MSCW) on June 17 recommended strong action against the police for allegedly failing to act on the complaint filed against J Jana, who reportedly killed his two children at Wahktieh forest, Nongrah on May 30.
“We will write to home minister Lahkmen Rymbui and we will insist that this kind of insensitivity and lethargic habit of the law enforcers should be done away with as we cannot accept this as many women won’t go to the police station just for sake of going there,” MSCW chairperson Phidalia Toi said.
Three days before the tragic incident, Toi said the mother had gone to the police station to complain that her husband Jana had assaulted her on the roadside while she was on her way to work.
She said that the incident could have been avoided had the police taken prompt action on the complaint filed by the mother of the two children.
“Three days before the tragic incident, the mother had already gone to the police station to complain that her husband (J Jana) had assaulted her on the roadside while she was on her way to work. Unfortunately), the police did not take any action but only said that it was a family dispute (that needs to be resolved through counselling since her husband was an alcoholic),” Toi said.
“Therefore, the finding of the women’s commission is that there was gross negligence of the police to take action against the accused. Had they been prompt to do the needful, the incident could have been prevented”, she further added.
Toi informed that the members of the commission held a meeting and “our resolution is that come what may we will insist that this thing will not happen again.”
The chairperson said that no credit can be given to the police on this case till the arrest of the accused.
“Because there was no action taken by the police. That is why we will strongly recommend to the Meghalaya government to take strong action on this,” she maintained, adding the police should be sensitive towards the plight of women.
On the fear of people from filing domestic violence cases, Toi said, “Sometimes people don’t want to file the case because they are afraid. We don’t know if maybe there is a threat as what happened to those two kids was a kind of revenge because that mother had gone to the police station to report the assault. Maybe they are afraid and let us say there are many reasons for people not to file FIR.”
She however said there is an alternative for the police to take action in case women do not want to file an FIR.
“The police under the Domestic Violence Act could have referred the case to the one-step centre to the protection officer for immediate intervention so that such things could be prevented,” Toi said adding, “We will recommend that all domestic violence cases should be done in this way.”
According to her, the DVA is to provide immediate relief to women even if they are not willing to file an FIR.
