The Dehradun police registered a case against two constables on Friday for misbehaving with the children of the leader of the Opposition in the State Assembly and senior BJP leader, Ajay Bhatt, on Wednesday evening. The cops were charged under Sections 323, 504 and 506 of the IPC
Bhatt, expressing outrage over the incident, said that it had exposed how much vulnerable the common people were to the police going on the rampage on the pretext of enforcing the law. However, later, he toned down, saying that he had forgiven the errant police personnel.
“But they should shed arrogance and desist themselves from heckling the common people for trifles. I want them to change for the better and show minimum respect for the dignity of the common people,” he said.
Meanwhile, irked over this, a BJP delegation led by Umesh Aggarwal met the Dehradun SSP Pushpak Jyoti on Thursday evening. While expressing outrage over police going berserk on the roads, they demanded either suspension of the erring cops or in the least an FIR be lodged against them.
The protesters shouted anti-police slogans. “Police who are supposed to provide security to the people are now engaged in browbeating them or humiliating them for slightest of reasons”, was the common tone of the protestors.
Taking cognisance of this case, SSP had earlier transferred the two constables to police line. Sources said that Bhatt’s son was going to Clock Tower on his two-wheeler with his sister as the pillion. Two policemen-one a traffic police employee and another civil police employee- stopped and charged him with traffic rule violation.
Altercation ensued and the leader’s son said police had humiliated him. later, with police yelling at them, they were forced to disclose their identity, Digvijay, the son of the BJP leader, said. With the dissemination of this information, senior police officers, including SP City, rushed to the spot and managed to resolve the issue.
As per the complainant, police had not just misbehaved with them but manhandled them too. In his written complaint, Bhatt’s son stated that the policemen had abused them and even threatened them of dire consequences.
Taking cognisace of the matter, a case has been registered in the Kotwali police station. Sources said that these policemen who claim they are being made victims of the incident may register counter FIR against the duo soon.
Reacting to the issue, Ajay Bhatt said that he had been out of station for the past two days. “I read about it in a newspaper. It is an unfortunate incident. My son is right. Police are to blame. He had to disclose things as he was being thrashed by the policemen. This is nothing new. The common people are at the receiving end of police picking batons to coerce them.
Being a public representative, I may forgive them but police should rid themselves of such superciliousness while dealing with the common people. With crimes spiraling in the State, police are doing nothing. However, they are adept in baring fangs on the people to assert their clout,” Bhatt said.