Three policemen were placed under suspension and a police station in-charge was line-attached in Bhopal for allegedly manhandling two journalists of a national Hindi daily after dubbing them as “activists” of banned outfit SIMI.
“We have suspended an Assistant Sub Inspector (ASI) and two head constables and line attached (removal from field duties) Awadhpuri Police Station in-charge in the matter,” Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Raman Singh said.
ASI R S Dangi and head constables, Subhash Tyagi and Santosh Yadav, were suspended, while Awadhpuri police station in-charge Shikha Vaish was line-attached as she was “not aware of the incident”, he said.
The incident took place in the wee hours of Tuesday when the two scribes — Vijay Prabhat Shukla and Krishna Kumar Tiwari — were returning home after thier duties.
When one of them was handing over a laptop and a mobile charger to the other, a PCR Van patrolling in the area reached at the spot and enquired about them. Despite introducing themselves as journalists and apprising that were heading home after work, the policemen, who were alleged to be in an inebriated condition, misbehaved with them and used expletives to threaten them without listening to their justification, the SSP said.
The cops then forcibly took them to Awadhpuri police station and confined them there for the entire night, the duo alleged in their complaint. Shukla alleged that Dangi was drunk and did not listen to them.
He then started beating them despite being told that they are journalists. Shukla claimed that when he told the cops that he belongs to Faizabad in Uttar Pradesh, the policemen dubbed the duo as “SIMI activists” and took them to police station and allegedly beat them up.
Later, Dangi and others left the police station and the two scribes were allowed to leave from there early morning on Tuesday. The condition of the journalists worsened after reaching home, after which they narrated the incident to their editor.
On a complaint over the incident, senior police officers swung into action and suspended the three policemen. The SSP said the duo was taken to a government hospital where they are undergoing treatment. Medical reports confirmed that they suffered injuries, he said.
(All images are representational | Feature image source: PTI )