E-Paper
'Forced me to sign affidavit that peeing video is fake’: Madhya Pradesh tribal man to cops
Sidhi Addl SP Anjulata Patle said the tribal man told the police that he signed an affidavit on July 3 under pressure from the Pravesh Shukla family.
BHOPAL/REWA: Pravesh Shukla, the Madhya Pradesh man arrested for urinating on a tribal labourer, and his family allegedly forced the victim to sign an affidavit that the viral video which triggered an uproar on social media was a fake, a Sidhi police officer said on Wednesday, citing a statement of the tribal man.
Sidhi additional superintendent of police (Addl SP) Anjulata Patle said the victim corroborated Pravesh Shukla’s claim that the incident captured in the video took place in 2020. The victim also told the police that when the video was leaked on social media this week, he was approached by the Shukla family.
“He said under their pressure, he signed an affidavit on July 3 that the video was fake but the video is not fake,” Patle said, minutes before a bulldozer reached Shukla’s house to bring down the unauthorised portion.
The labourer told the police that he didn’t remember the date or the month of 2020 when the incident took place. “He said that a man with Pravesh tried to pee on him first but Pravesh stopped him and urinated on him. He also hurled abuses at him,” said the police officer.
Patle said three other persons were present with Pravesh Shukla when the incident took place. “We will also interrogate them,” he added.
Pravesh Shukla was arrested late on Tuesday after chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan told the police to arrest him under the stringent National Security Act (NSA). The Congress had alleged the state police were going easy on Shukla because he was linked to the state’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a claim that was denied by the BJP and the party’s Sidhi legislator Kedarnath Shukla.
Madhya Pradesh Congress leader Arun Yadav countered the BJP with a list of BJP office-bearers from Sidhi. According to this list, Pravesh Shukla was vice president of a mandal of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM). He also circulated a news item about his appointment as a representative of Sidhi legislator Kedarnath Shukla.
On Wednesday, home minister Narottam Mishra said it didn’t doesn’t matter which party he belonged to. “He has committed a heinous crime and he will not be spared at any cost. The demolition of illegal construction will take place,” Mishra said.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi cited the incident to jab the ruling BJP, saying atrocities on tribals and Dalits had increased under BJP rule. “Entire humanity has been shamed by the inhuman crime of a BJP leader in Madhya Pradesh. This is the disgusting face and real character of BJP’s hatred towards tribals and Dalits,” he said in a post on Twitter.
Both BJP and Congress have been trying to woo the tribal community in the state ahead of elections later this year.
