Bhopal : Congress leader Digvijaya Singh condemned lathi charge against Karni Sena workers in Harda district and requested Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav to probe the incident and called for action against officers concerned.
The Congress leader Singh also said that he would visit Harda and also had talked to Harda Collector and Superintendent of Police (SP) in regard to the incident. "The administration has the right to resolve every complicated issue according to the procedure. Was that procedure followed? But the way students, including girls were lathicharged in their hostels.
Four-five people who are surrounded by the police should be taken to a police station or elsewhere but the ruthless manner in which they are being thrashed cannot be tolerated. I am not a member of Karni Sena, but any organisation that staged protests for its own people, then they have the right. These people were only staged a sit-in peacefully and there was nothing else. But what has happened is very condemnable," Digvijaya Singh told reporters.
He further added, "I will request the Chief Minister to investigate the way this incident happened and action should be taken against the guilty officers and employees." "There is excess being committed by the administration. I will go to Harda today. Yesterday, I spoke to Harda SP and collector," Singh said in a post on X this morning.
Karni Sena workers were reportedly protesting against the arrest of their state president, Jeevan Singh, by the district police and were demanding his (Jeevan Singh) release. The Karni Sena workers reportedly blocked the Khandwa bypass of Bhopal-Indore Highway too.
Earlier on Sunday, Harda Collector Siddharth Jain told news agency "We had to use lathi charge because the bypass area was jammed for 12 hours from Saturday night. We were constantly trying to convince them. The critical service of the city was affected and even the ambulance could not go as they had made it so much crowded there. After that, these people were advised, tried to talk to these people all night long, but they did not understand.
Therefore, we use minimum force. First of all, we used water cannons to disperse the crowd and then we used tear gas and lathi-charge to remove the people." Additionally, the police also arrested over 25 people among the protestors. Further action will be taken according to the rules and regulations into the matter, the Collector said.