A joint bench of Justices Rana Bahadur Bam and Prakash Wosti issued the order to the Metropolitan Police Range. Police had arrested and subsequently suspended traffic policewoman Rubina Hussein, 27 on the charge of kidnapping and sexually abusing Pujan, 17, of Chahabil. Pujan is a niece of Sub-Inspector Indira Basnet, who is Hussein´s boss. [break]
While police say Hussein was arrested for abduction, she counters that Pujan was her live-in girlfriend.
Love at first sight: Hussein
Hussein says she has neither kidnapped Pujan nor abused her sexually. “She is my live-in girlfriend; we are head over heels in love. They arrested and suspended me in a misuse of power,” said Hussein showing a bundle of love letters allegedly written her by Pujan, a grade 12 student at Xavier International School, Kalopul.
“The sexual relationship was consensual. Nothing can be farther from the truth than the charges against me,” added a handcuffed Rubina Hussein.
According to her, they met in May, 2009 and fell in love at first sight. The woman cop says she did not guess that her relationship with her boss´s niece would cost her dear.
In May, Sub-Inspector Indira Basnet asked her to accompany her to a temple in Hetauda where she was to sacrifice a he-goat. Basnet had also brought her niece on the trip and that was how the two became friends. “Pujan had a crush on me. A few days letter she proposed and I reciprocated,” Hussein recounts.
The relationship made headway in the following days. The couple rented an apartment at Dhalku, Kathmandu two months ago, and started to live together. But the story took a different turn after police arrested Hussein, acting on a complaint by Pujan´s family that the 17-year-old had been kidnapped.
She kept 17-year-old without family´s consent: Police
“Rubina was keeping the 17-year-old without the consent of her family. So we arrested her and brought the kidnapping charge,” said Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Lal Mani Acharya at Metropolitan Police Range.
But Hussein´s lawyer Som Nath Sapkota objects. “She is no longer a minor as she is already 17. So it is laughable that the police have leveled an abduction charge against Rubina for having consensual sexual relations with a 17-year-old,” argued Sapkota. “You cannot implicate a person on such spurious charges simply because the person is helpless,” he said.
Bijaya Shakya, the owner of the house where the couple was staying, also dismisses the charge that Hussein detained Pujan at his house. “Pujan had also made friends with my daughter. Most of the time she stayed in the house watching television, going out when there was no electricity,” he said.
Sub-Inspector Basnet declined to comment. When myrepublica.com contacted her, she said she was in Biratnagar and added that she was not very familiar with the incident. Despite several attempts, Pujan could not be contacted.
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