Legislative Council Chairman Basavaraj Horatti has said that he is not happy with the suspension of Shridhar Satare, a police inspector from Dharwad, for including his [Mr. Horatti] name in a criminal case.
“I think the inspector has been made a scapegoat. It is not right on the part of the Government to initiate action against innocent officials in the lower-rung of the administration. The inspector has been made a scapegoat in the case, which is obviously a false complaint under the Atrocities Act,” he said.
Mr. Horatti told journalists in Dharwad on Sunday that he was in Bengaluru when the case was filed against him in Dharwad. “It is a grave lapse on the part of the police officials to file an FIR against any person without verifying the facts. The day after the FIR was registered, Superintendent of Police P. Krishnakanth called me over phone and informed me about it. He apologised stating that it was a mistake by him,” Mr. Horatti said.
“A few MLCs had raised this issue in the Council and demanded a thorough inquiry into the FIR row, seeking action against the guilty officials. Rather than suspending the inspector, the Government should have initiated action to find out who was guilty and taken action against them,’’ he said.
Meanwhile, some Dalit leaders opposed the Government’s action to suspend Mr. Satare. They staged a protest in front of the police station. They said that Mr. Satare was resting in his house when the incident took place as he was suffering from COVID-19. Some higher officials were misusing their power and have made the police inspector a scapegoat, they said.
