SHILLONG, Aug 20: A local court on Tuesday remanded North Eastern Council (NEC) cashier Shambu Sharma to judicial custody for 14 days for allegedly molesting a 23-year-old co-worker – a casual employee – at his official quarters in Motinagar on Monday.
Earlier, the Laitumkhrah police had registered a case against him under various sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
East Khasi Hills Superintendent of Police Sylvester Nongtnger told reporters the police had received information on Monday evening that there was a rape case at the NEC campus.
He said the officer-in-charge of Laitumkhrah police station was immediately asked to go to the NEC campus and investigate. Later, the accused and the alleged victim were brought to Laitumkhrah police station.
Nongtnger said the woman was sent for a medical examination and then, a case was registered against the accused.
Meanwhile, Edency Syiem, the woman’s aunt, said around lunch time on Monday, the accused had asked her niece that she will need to go to the bank.
According to her, her niece had thought they would go to the bank in the official vehicle.
“But the cashier told her that they will be going to the bank in his vehicle. Instead of going to the bank, he told her that he will need to collect his tiffin box from his residential quarters at Motinagar,” Syiem told reporters.
She said when the two of them reached his residence, the accused asked her niece to go inside but she was reluctant. “But after he insisted that she would need to have tea, she entered as she did not suspect him to harm her. But as she entered, the cashier forced upon her,” Syiem said.
She said she failed to understand why the accused initially took her niece to the Shillong-Jowai Road after molesting her and then, turned back after some time before moving towards the road leading to Shillong Civil Hospital.
“After this, the accused continued to make a round of the whole Shillong city. He again brought her to the office late in the evening,” Syiem said.
She alleged that the accused had hit her niece and she was going through pain on the back of her neck.
She said the family members filed an FIR on Monday night after learning what the accused had done to her niece. She said the police had taken her niece for a medical checkup at the Ganesh MCH Hospital on Monday night.
“We have come to the hospital again today with the police to do some tests,” Syiem said.
Further, she stated that her niece was appointed in the NEC on compassionate ground following the demise of her father. She was attached to the accused since her appointment more than a year ago. She appealed to women groups and pressure groups to help the family get justice.
