Four days after a team of police officials brutally lathicharged and injured 50-odd residents of Kanangara village in Osmanabad district, the NCP-controlled Maharashtra Home Ministry on Friday ordered that cognisable offences be registered against the District Superintendent of Police and his deputy in connection with the police attack against the hapless villagers who had sought action against the illegal bootleggers' mafia operating in the area.
Under flak from the Opposition BJP for his efforts to "soft-pedal" the Kanagara incident, State Home Minister R R Patil of the NCP resorted to a damage-control exercise, by ordering registration of cognizable offences against Osmanabad District Superintendent of Police (DSP) Sachin Patil, a young IPS officer who had in the past worked as the aide-de-camp of Maharashtra Governor K Sankaranarayanan, and Deputy Superintendent of Police Vaishali Kadukar who supervised the "raid" on the Kanagar village on the night of May 26.
Patil ordered action against Osmanabad district's two top police officials, two-days after he had ordered suspension of four low-level police personnel — an Assistant Police Inspector and three constables — in connection with the incident.