Jailbreak, RSS leader ‘torture’ to rock House

Bhopal: The October 31 jailbreak by suspected SIMI men and the September 25 custodial ‘torture’ of an RSS leader are set to rock the five-day winter session of Madhya

Bhopal: The October 31 jailbreak by suspected SIMI men and the September 25 custodial ‘torture’ of an RSS leader are set to rock the five-day winter session of Madhya Pradesh Assembly beginning Monday.

While the Congress will corner the BJP government on the jailbreak, at least two members of the ruling party are likely to raise the Balaghat incident, an RSS leader claimed, demanding arrest of the accused policemen in the case.

Congress chief whip in the assembly Ramniwas Rawat told HT on Saturday that he has sought an adjournment motion to raise the issue of jailbreak, in which eight suspected SIMI men escaped Bhopal central jail after killing head warder Ramshankar Yadav, before being gunned down by police in an alleged encounter in the outskirts of the city in the morning.

Deputy leader of opposition and Congress MLA from Rajpur (Barwani), Bala Bachchan said the state government will have to answer how the eight were awake but the security apparatus was caught sleeping.

“The eight alleged jailbreakers were undertrials and some of them were awaiting court judgments. How can such a lapse even take place? Didn’t the government learn lessons from the October 1 early morning escape by the same men from Khandwa jail?” asked Bachchan.

Firebrand Congress MLA from Rau (Indore), Jeetu Patwari said the government will also be questioned as to “who is responsible for the murder of jail head warder Ramashankar Yadav”.

That security staff meant for jails is being deployed for security of bureaucrats and ministers would also be raised, he asserted.

Facing flak from various quarters, the state government has already ordered a judicial probe into the whole incident.

On the Balaghat custodial torture, an RSS leader claimed at least two BJP MLAs—Dr Yogendra Nirmal and Rampyare Kulaste—will question the government on the delay in arrest of the accused cops.

“Both the MLAs have personally assured me to raise the issue in the winter session,” RSS Mandla-Balaghat head Subhash Badole said.

While the Waraseoni MLA, Nirmal was not available for comment, Kulaste, who represents Niwas and is the brother of Union minister Faggan Singh Kulaste, confirmed that he had assured the RSS leader about raising the issue in the assembly.

“It’s not possible now to get the matter listed for question hour, but I will certainly try to raise it through the call attention motion in the coming session,” Kulaste said.

“The state government needs to come clear on the issue by stating in the assembly whether the accused cops would be arrested or not,” Badole said.

The alleged torture of RSS pracharak Suresh Yadav by cops in a Balaghat police station sparked outrage among right wing outfits, with RSS demanding action against the accused cops who were booked—seven of them were suspended and two home guards terminated. No arrests have been made so far in the case being probed by an SIT.