Taking cognizance of the alleged misbehaviour by police personnel towards the farmers in Tikamgarh police station, Home Minister Bhupendra has ordered Director General of Police (DGP) Rishi Kumar Shukla to look into the matter and submit a report within three days.
Earlier in the day, Home Minister Bhupendra Singh told mediapersons on Wednesday said, “No farmer was beaten up in the police station. But, he added that the State Government has taken such reports seriously and asked the Director General of Police to conduct an inquiry into the allegations of stripping and beating up of farmers and submit a report within three days.
“It is a matter of investigation if the farmers took off their clothes themselves or police did so,” he told.
The Home Minister said Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has taken a serious note of the matter and strict action would be taken against the erring officials, if they are found guilty in the inquiry report.
He also said the Government was in the process of identifying drought-hit areas in the State, and the district collectors are conducting surveys in this regard.
Meanwhile, the Congress has alleged that a group of farmers returning from a protest for declaring Tikamgarh as a drought-hit district were detained, stripped and beaten up by the police last evening, charges denied by the BJP Government.
The Congress had on Tuesday organised a farmers’ protest outside the Tikamgarh collectorate seeking drought-hit status for the district, which received scanty rainfall this year.
Congress leader and former minister Yadvendra Singh said the police detained some of the protesters returning home, as well as some farmers just passing by and had nothing to do with the protest. “They were kept at the Dehat police station, stripped and severely beaten up by the police,” Singh alleged.