Hyderabad: Jawan misbehaves with officer’s wife; case goes to defence secretary

Hyderabad: The wife of a Lieutenant Colonel staying at the officers’ quarters in Secunderabad has lodged a complaint against an Army Jawan for allegedly passing lewd comments against her and misbehaved her.

The complaint was filed with the Military Police three weeks ago. Since the complainant saw no action being taken, the complaint was escalated to the defence secretary and the defence minister’s office.

The woman lives with her child in the quarters while her husband is posted in another state. The Jawan against whom the complaint is filed is serving as a “buddy” (domestic help) in a Colonel’s house located adjacent to that of the complainant.

Interestingly, as per records, the Jawan’s actual posting is elsewhere.

A separate complaint has been filed against the Colonel who is posted in another place and his wife for suppressing the matter.

Records show the complainant shifted to the quarters in May. According to the complaint, on two separate occasions the Jawan passed lewd comments when she passed by.

On June 23, according to the complaint, the Jawan parked his two-wheeler in front of her garage, preventing her from taking her car out. On questioning him, the Jawan reportedly used harsh language and intimidated her.

“He (Jawan) pounced on me, addressed me as ‘tu’. He trespassed the social distance and verbally abused me. Thankfully, a Sepoy who was passing stopped by and on knowing the details thrashed the Jawan,” the complaint said.

“I dialled the Military Police and waited for 45 minutes, no one turned up. Then I called the Civil Police. Within minutes two constables were at my door. They confronted the man and took him along but were stopped by the Army guards saying the Military Police would deal with it,” the complaint said.

The complainant alleged she was intimidated by the Colonel’s wife. The complainant said, “On seeing the two cops, the Colonel’s wife said, ‘Don’t you know who I am? My husband is likely to be promoted to a higher rank, you are after all the wife of a Lt. Colonel’. The cops are a witness to this.”

Colonel told Lt. Colonel to stop his wife
The complaint states that after this incident, the Colonel reportedly called up the Lt. Colonel more than once and asked him to stop his spouse from escalating her complaint.

A few weeks later, the Jawan was back on duty. On the evening of July 24, when the complainant’s child was playing alone on the front porch, the Colon-el’s wife allegedly trespassed into the premises and shouted at him.

“This affected my son and he is in constant apprehension even to go outside the house. We are living in insurmountable pain and are left with the last option of reaching the defence ministry to re-present the pain we are undergoing beca-use of the misuse of power,” she wrote. The defence secretary’s office advis-ed the complainant to lodge a complaint with the local police if no action was taken.