In a rare incident, a constable thrashed a home-gaurd in full public view on road in Itaunja on a dispute over extracting hafta from roadside vendors, truckers and auto drivers.
Police and the media cell put a cover on the incident until a video of the same went viral on Sunday morning and senior police officials asked their subordinates about the entire episode. It was then only the lucknow police swung into action and suspended the constable.
As per reports, homegaurd Anuj Kumar was deployed near an over-bridge in Itaunja on June 22. He was managing the traffic movement to clear the jam on the road. In between, constable posted at Itaunja, reached the place, parked his bike on the road and reportedly started stopping the auto drivers. Eyewitnesses said the constable called the homeguard near him and asked why he was realizing ‘hafta’ form that point and this ensued into a verbal spat. The constable caught the homegaurd by his collar and pushed him down on the ground on the road in full public view. The commuters stopped at the scene to take a glance of the rare scene of fighting between two policemen.
later two policemen intervened into the matter and they pried out both from fighting again. In between, some commuter shot the incident in his mobile camera and he uploaded this to social site and later it went viral.
After the news reached to senior officials they did not inform their seniors about the same. On Sunday, the news went viral and reached to senior police officials including the ADG law and Order who asked his subordinates about the entire episode. This way the SSP lucknow came to know of the incident and she ordered to suspend the constable with immediate effect.
But despite the disgraceful and unfortunate incident, the police did not let it effort to cover up the case. PRO Alok Pathak said the constable is mentally upset and was not on duty. He refused the reports of extracting of hafta which led to the fracas between the constable and home-guard. The PRO initially did not give the details of the incident saying he had no such information about the incident.
But he later came with an explanation saying the constable was aggressive in nature and he was in the habit of picking up fight. He drew a blank, however, when asked why such a constable was posted at a police station if he was not mentally fit for duty.
ASP, Rural Pratap Gopendra lamented that the media was giving hype to issue in which the police already had conducted a probe and suspended the constable on Sunday morning. He said the constable was somewhat ‘crack’ (mentally upset) and he caught the fight when the home-guard asked him to park the bike on road side to avoid jam on the road. He said the home-guard denied to lodge a complaint against the constable when was asked about the same.
Sources said the police took all measures to control the damage done to the police image. They said the constable was summoned at the police station and was asked not give anti police statement to the media. “The media cell of the lucknow police also did strenuous efforts to hide the incident,’ they disclosed.