While women receiving prank calls, often abusive and vulgar, from unknown men no longer surprises anyone and is considered a part of life, a woman police personal of the Armed Reserve Unit of Chennai City Police was at the receiving end of a prank caller who, masquerading as a senior woman police official using a voice changer, passed lewd comments at the constable and almost managed to get her involved in unsavoury activities raising serious concerns about the breach of protocols among police that led to the harassment of the victim.
The victim was on duty on April 24 when she received a call from her office colleague seeking her willingness to be deputed on Personal Security Officer (PSO) duty for a senior police official. When the woman agreed for the assignment, she was told that the senior official would contact her directly and give instructions.
‘On the same day, she received a missed call from a number. Assuming it was the senior woman police officer, she immediately called back that number. The woman police officer speaking on the other end asked for the complainant’s name, address and other personal details,’ stated the city police in a release.
‘Then the woman police officer suddenly started talking about the complainant’s voice and body in an abusive manner. The woman police officer also told her that she will send a man tonight to the complainant’s house and asked her to behave with him in a derogatory manner.’
Chennai City Police
Trying to confirm if the official was the one she was supposed to go on PSO duty, the victim tried to clarify her identity but the woman officer had replied that she was an additional commissioner of police on special duty and that the job was unofficial. Believing the caller to be her superior, the woman continued with the conversation even after it turned lewd and derogatory.
‘Then the woman police officer suddenly started talking about the complainant’s voice and body in an abusive manner. The woman police officer also told her that she will send a man tonight to the complainant’s house and asked her to behave with him in a derogatory manner. The complainant was shocked on hearing this. Later the woman police officer said that she will help her to become SI and to buy a new house for her too,’ the police stated.
Seriously suspecting the motive of the superior officer, the armed reserve policewoman proceeded with a complaint to her duty-in-charge head constable suspecting that the caller might be a prankster.
The police immediately tracked down details of the mobile number used in the call and cracked the case. A special team nabbed the accused Periasamy (33) from Udumalapet in Tiruppur district on April 30. During investigation, the police found that he was a habitual offender who called women police personnel to harass them. The police added that the accused has been earlier arrested for such similar offence in other districts like Tirupur, Dharmapuri and Ramanathapuram for the similar offence of impersonation and harassment of woman police through phone calls.
Serious breach of protocol exposed young women in the force to sexual predators
The ease with which a conman managed to get mobile numbers of women police personnel and harass them raises serious questions about breach of protocols in the Armed Reserve Police unit of Chennai City Police. Over the past few weeks alone, at least two more women police personnel from the same unit have been allegedly at the receiving end of such calls, sources claimed.
“Firstly, no one can be assigned PSO duty orally. There has to be paperwork done before any police personnel is sent on PSO duty, which did not happen in this case. A personal security officer, to be assigned on duty, needs to be familiar with using firearms but the woman who was sought for the duty has no such experience while there were several men with such experience in the same unit.”
Police official on condition of anonymity
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a police official clarified that serious protocol violations have taken place leading to the harassment. “Firstly, no one can be assigned PSO duty orally. There has to be paperwork done before any police personnel is sent on PSO duty, which did not happen in this case. A personal security officer, to be assigned on duty, needs to be familiar with using firearms but the woman who was sought for the duty has no such experience while there were several men with such experience in the same unit,” wondered the official.
The officer also asked how a prankster could have got the phone numbers of women constables and had made the call exactly after a superior officer had assigned PSO duty and had a conservation seeking a PSO masquerading as a senior police official. “There are several breaches of protocols that has exposed young women police personnel to danger and they need to be probed in detail,” he said.