Rewa (Madhya Pradesh): A police officer was removed from field duty Friday in Padmadhar area of this district in Madhya Pradesh for allegedly hitting a temple priest while enforcing the lockdown in place for the novel coronavirus outbreak.
Rewa IG of Police Chanchal Shekhar identified the officer as Civil Line police station in charge Rajkumar Mishra.
BJP MLA Rajendra Shukla tweeted picture in which Mishra was seen hitting a priest with a stick, and Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan responded to it by asking senior officials to take action against Mishra.
“Rajkumar Mishra had gone to the spot after getting information that a crowd had gathered there. However, his action (of hitting the priest) was improper and so he was line attached (removed from field duty as a form of punishment),” said Shekhar.
Police sources said the priest was conducting an ‘aarti ’along with some people when the incident happened.
However, after Mishra was removed from field duty, many policemen expressed their sympathies. Some said that he was just doing his duty and the punishment meted out to him will certainly send wrong signals down the line. Others were quick to point out that now religious bodies will have gatherings which the police will be apprehensive to break up.
PTI