PUNE: A 42-year-old woman returning officer, assigned by the cooperatives department to oversee the election of a housing society in Kondhwa Khurd, was wrongfully restrained and threatened on Thursday afternoon by a group of 10 people.
They objected to her conducting a video survey before the beginning of the society’s election process. The returning officer later lodged a complaint with the Kondhwa police who are investigating the case.
Assistant inspector Ganesh Torgal of Kondhwa police station said, “The men, who gathered near the returning officer, issued threats to her and restrained her from going out of the society. The woman was scared and she decided to lodge a complaint with the police. There was no violence.”
Since Covid-19 restrictions have been lifted and cooperative housing societies with more than 250 members have been told to conduct the elections. The cooperative department had appointed the woman as returning officer for the society where the election will be held soon.
“Before conducting the election in the society, the returning officer is required to visit the society and check where the election can be held and what arrangements are required. The returning officer was filming the premises for this purpose,” Torgal said.
He added that when the complainant was taking a video of the society for the survey, one of the residents objected and called his friends who did not belong to the society.
“At least nine men arrived inside the society in an SUV and a two-wheeler and started threatening the officer and restrained her movement for quite some time,” Torgal said. “Somehow, the officer managed move out of the society premises after other residents gathered,” he added.
Police registered the FIR under sections 341 (wrongful restraint), 504 (intentional insult), 141 (show of criminal force), 143 (unlawful assembly), and 147 (rioting) of the Indian Penal Code. “We suspect that some unhappy elements of the society are behind the incident,” Torgal said.
