DEHRADUN: The State Police Complaints Authority (PCA) has held ex-Superintendent of Police (SP) of Pithoragarh, Lokeshwar Singh (IPS, retired from service), guilty of brutalising a citizen who approached him with a grievance.

The PCA, after reviewing evidence presented before its officials, concluded that the former SP subjected the complainant to severe physical abuse, including allegedly stripping him naked inside his office and then threatening him with false implication in criminal cases.

The Authority has now directed the State Government to initiate disciplinary action against Singh, whose resignation from the service was recently accepted.

The incident dates back to February 6, 2023. The complainant, RTI activist and cloth merchant Laxmi Dutt Joshi, stated he approached then-SP Lokeshwar Singh regarding unhygienic conditions—specifically, garbage being dumped—near the police lines quarters where he resides.

Joshi noted he is the son of a retired sanitation worker from the police department.

"I simply went to lodge a complaint about the filth," Joshi later recounted, according to the complaint filed with the PCA.

Joshi alleged that instead of addressing the issue, SP Lokeshwar Singh led him to an adjoining room, devoid of CCTV surveillance. It was there, he claims, that the assault occurred. "I was stripped naked, and the beating began. His subordinates joined in," Joshi alleged.

Following the alleged assault, he was ushered out through a rear exit, also away from any CCTV cameras.

Following the alleged incident, Laxmi Dutt Joshi immediately sought medical examination at the District Hospital, which recommended an X-ray.