The Indore Police, resorting to lathi charge on Bajrang Dal members protesting against the alleged illegal drug trade on June 15 night, is a rare occurrence in Madhya Pradesh.
Even as the government initiated an inquiry and took administrative action against a police officer following the incident, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the Opposition Congress have both questioned the lathi charge.
Earlier, the police had tried to remove the protesters gathered at Palasia Square, a busy junction in Indore which caused a traffic jam. Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Dharmendra Singh Bhadoria said that mild force was used after the protesters, who had assembled without seeking permission, refused to budge despite repeated appeals by the police.
As the matter escalated, State Home Minister Narottam Mishra initiated an inquiry.
“We have also taken cognisance of the police action against the protesters and decided to send an Additional Director General of Police (ADGP)-level officer to probe all issues related to it. We have also ordered that the incharge of the police station concerned be sent to the district lines (removed from field duty),” he said.
BJP State president V. D. Sharma described the police action as brutal. “If our Bajrang Dal activists, who were raising some demands, been subjected to brutal lathi charge, those officers who were responsible for the same would not be spared,” said Mr. Sharma.
Meanwhile, spokespersons of the Congress — that usually have had an acrimonious relationship with the Bajrang Dal nationally and even promised to ban it in the run-up to the Karanataka Assembly polls in May – also condemned the police action, albeit for a different reason.
“In Indore, the Shivraj government lathi-charged Bajrang Dal workers. Bajrang Dal was opposing liquor establishments (pubs). Shivraj does not compromise in the matter of liquor. The one who opposes illegal liquor will be made half dead,” tweeted Congress spokesperson Piyush Babele in Hindi.
“It has heard that following the lathi charge after Bajrang Dal’s movement against the illegal sale of drugs in Indore on Thursday, the government is conducting an inquiry by an ADG-level officer, TI has been suspended....It has now lodged an FIR against 250 [Bajrang Dal] workers??,” tweeted MP Congress media cell incharge K.K. Mishra.
