{"id":4952,"date":"2008-01-09T20:45:05","date_gmt":"2008-01-10T01:45:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com?p=4952"},"modified":"2008-01-09T20:02:03","modified_gmt":"2008-01-10T01:02:03","slug":"police_beat_chi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/2008\/01\/09\/police_beat_chi\/","title":{"rendered":"Been Caught Stealing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"dhalla.jpg\"\nMastervk posted a story on our news tab<\/a> about two children in Punjab who were punished with a merciless (and illegal) beating; they had been accused of stealing a VIP’s purse.<\/p>\n\n

Sachin is nine and his sister Bindia just five. But their tender age didn’t stop Punjab police from thrashing them mercilessly after they were caught allegedly stealing the purse of Canadian member of parliament Ruby Dhalla on a visit to Pohid village near here.<\/strong><\/blockquote>\n\n
The kids begged and pleaded for mercy but the cops didn’t relent; they kept raining blows on them.<\/strong> The two were later bundled and taken into custody. The police action wasn’t just inhuman but a brazen violation of the law meant to deal with underage offenders.<\/strong> For, under Juvenile Justice Act, the kids should have been produced before a magistrate who, depending on the evidence against them, could have referred them to a juvenile home. [TOI<\/a>]<\/blockquote>\n\n

I hope the children are okay. I think the reaction of the police who were part of Dhalla’s entourage was excessive. If anyone deserves a thrashing, it’s these young people<\/a> (who are Canadian, incidentally) instead. Part of me is concerned about whether little Sachin and Bindia even did what they are being trotted out and accused of, or if they’re just being scapegoated.<\/p>\n\n

Liberal MP Ruby Dhalla, whose parents were born in the Punjab region, is on a two-week tour of India with other parliamentarians. Her purse was grabbed while she was touring the town of Pohir on Monday, but was retrieved by police a half-hour later. [canoe<\/a>]<\/blockquote>\n\n

Indian Express says that the purloined purse was pilfered from an NRI who was accompanying<\/em> Dhalla, and not Dhalla herself. Initially, from the first few articles I read, the MP from Brampton\u00e2\u20ac\u201dSpringdale<\/a> seemed tepid in her response to the abuse meted out on her behalf, but the same article which clarified whose bag was actually taken contained this quote:<\/p>\n\n

“I think children make mistakes and they should be taught with love. They should be given love and respect. I will take a look at the whole matter,<\/strong>” she said, when asked if she would ask the police to withdraw the FIR that had been lodged against the kids in the case. [IE<\/a>]<\/blockquote>\n\n

I hope she does. I also hope that I’m forgiven for not being able to get this song<\/a> out of my head, from the moment I read this tip on…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mastervk posted a story on our news tab about two children in Punjab who were punished with a merciless (and illegal) beating; they had been accused of stealing a VIP’s purse. Sachin is nine and his sister Bindia just five. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4952"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4952\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}