Four police officials suspended for allegedly assaulting Dalit BJP leader in Prayagraj

The party’s Scheduled Caste Morcha in Uttar Pradesh has said that it will not ‘stay quiet’ until a case is registered against the accused personnel.

Four police personnel have been suspended for allegedly assaulting Bharatiya Janata Party leader Manoj Pasi at the Jhunsi police station in Uttar Pradesh’s Prayagraj, PTI reported on Thursday.

Pasi is the state co-treasurer of the BJP’s Scheduled Caste Morcha.

He has alleged that station house officer Upendra Pratap Singh and six other policemen, including sub-inspectors and constables, assaulted him when he had gone to the police station on Wednesday to ask why construction work at his brother’s house was stopped, reported The Indian Express.

Vinal Kishor Mishra, the assistant police commissioner of Jhunsi, told the newspaper that four police personnel – three sub-inspectors and a constable – were suspended with immediate effect after the allegations came to light.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (City) Abhishek Bharti stated that a departmental inquiry had been initiated against the suspended personnel.

No action has been taken against the station house officer so far, according to The Indian Express.

Pasi told the newspaper that the construction of a boundary wall was underway on a piece of land his brother had bought four years ago. However, the police stopped the work based on his neighbour’s complaint and also “hurled abuses” at him and his brother, he alleged.

 “I went to the police station around 12 noon on Wednesday and was asking the SHO and local outpost Chamanganj in-charge Santosh Singh if there was any written order to stop the work and that let the sub-divisional magistrate decide the matter since it is a matter related to revenue,” Pasi told The Indian Express.

He said he also questioned the policemen for abusing him and his brother. Following this, “SHO Upendra Pratap Singh, sub-inspector Santosh Singh and four other policemen dragged me inside a room of the police station and assaulted me so brutally that I fell unconscious”, said Pasi.

He claimed that the deputy commission of police told him the station house officer was not removed “due to Mahakumbh duty”.

The Mahakumbh Mela is a Hindu festival and pilgrimage that takes place every 12 years at four riverbanks in India – Prayagraj, Haridwar, Nashik and Ujjain. This year, it began on January 13 and will conclude on February 26.

Ramchandra Kanaujia, president of the BJP’ state unit Scheduled Caste Morcha, stated that the unit will not “stay quiet” until the accused police personnel “are taken to task and a case is not registered against them for torturing a Dalit”.

“Manoj Pasi had not committed any crime, but he was beaten up in such a manner that even a hardcore criminal is not treated like that,” said Kanaujia. “Manoj was seriously injured and was not even able to speak properly.”

Courtesy : Scroll

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