The leader of Opposition in the Assembly Ajay Bhatt slammed the Congress-led State Government for suspending two constables in connection with the case of police taking action against the son of a local Congress leader lal Chandra Sharma, who had violated traffic rule. This would prove a grim precedent for the State when two policemen are shown the door for acting according to the laws.
All are equal before law and there should be no discrimination between a politically connected person and an ordinary one when it comes to enforcing laws on the ground. Suspension of two policemen casually without the department going for an investigation would auger ill for the morale of the law enforcing machinery and it would in turn embolden the unruly to flout laws with impunity, the veteran BJP leader said.
The leaders of other political parties also took the Government to task over the same issue, saying that such cavalier suspension of police personnel sans any probe would make police coyer in taking on crimes and cases of law violations.
They said the double standards being indulged in unabashedly by the ruling party, exhorting police to enforce laws efficiently, on one hand, and suspending cops for taking action, on the other, would send a dangerous signal for the law-enforcing agency when it is engaged in curbing crimes, ran the refrain. Resentment has seeped in police department too with some police officers sounding disappointed over the suspension of two constables.
Sources said that when a traffic policemen had asked an auto-rickshaw driver to park his vehicle away from the market area on Sunday son of a Congress leader lal Chand Sharma, Abhinandan who was on the auto-rickshaw got involved in an altercation with the policemen. Meanwhile, some shopkeepers and Congress activists joined Abhinandan Sharma and they together kept on arguing with the constables.
Constables seeking help, CPU members Amit Kumar and Kuldeep Gusain reached the spot. As per a police officer, CPU members were attacked by Congress activists and one of them was injured. Congress leaders said, CPU members had misbehaved with Abhinandan Sharma.
later, local shopkeepers of Dehradun downed shutters and blocked Rajpur Road, protesting against police having misbehaved with the son of a local Congress leader on Monday. They demanded action against City Patrol Unit police personnel. later, a delegation led by Rajpur MlA met the Chief Minister Harish Rawat and Cabinet Minister Pritam Singh and demanded action against the errant policemen. Following the direction of Chief Minister, both the constables were suspended. Moreover, SP Navedita Kukreti has been asked to investigate the case.
Sources in the police department said that police have failed to defend CPU members before the CM due to unavailability of video footage. This, despite the fact that there is a directive for CPU members to capture video footages of their action on roads.