Within hours after the footage aired some regional television channels that showed them thrash a farmer mercilessly went viral on the social media, the Beed district police on Saturday ordered the suspension of two police constables and set up an inquiry into the incident.
The farmer, identified as one Manohar Ashruba Gandhle, who owns a five acre farm land, was thrashed by the two policemen on Friday, while he was standing in a queue at a rural co-operative bank at Talwada in Gevrai tehsil of Beed district to pay his crop insurance premium, when the two police men thrashed him.
The provocation for the two police men to beat up Gandhle was that he had stepped of the queue for a while and was seen arguing with some other people who were also in the queue.
Friday was the last day for payment of crop insurance. However, Maharashtra Revenue Minister announced late on Friday evening that the deadline was being extended by a week till August 7.
As a damage control measure, Beed’s district Superintendent of Police Anil Paraskar ordered the suspension of two erring policemen and instituted an inquiry into the incident, after regional television channels aired the footage of the incident and the video clips went viral on the social media.
Condemning the manner in which the farmer came to be beaten up by two policemen, leader of Opposition in Maharashtra legislative Council Dhananjay Munde charged that the incident exposed the chinks in the State Home department headed by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.