Police bus driver files counter complaint, says beaten up for no fault

He said the bus slipped on a slope where it was parked but he immediately applied brakes and brought it under control. He alleged that despite the vehicle coming to a stop, the AAP workers pulled him out of the bus and beat him up for intentionally trying to mow down their leader.

A Delhi police constable accused of trying to run over AAP leader Dilip Pandey has filed a complaint seeking legal action against the party’s members who thrashed him, in a continuing tit-for-tat between the city police and the government.

AAP leader Dilip Pandey (right) went to meet police commissioner with his colleague Sanjay Singh on Wednesday. (Mohd Zakir/HT photo)

The Delhi government has been seeking control over Delhi Police that reports to the Centre. Ever since AAP came to power in Delhi, the state government and the police are engaged in an ugly turf war.

The constable’s complaint came as a counter to the complaint by AAP leaders that the policeman tried to crush them while Pandey and other AAP members were talking to TV reporters on Tuesday night.

The constable, who drives a police bus, has asked the police to check the video footage of the incident and identify the volunteers who had beaten him.

He said the bus slipped on a slope where it was parked but he immediately applied brakes and brought it under control. He alleged that despite the vehicle coming to a stop, the AAP workers pulled him out of the bus and beat him up for intentionally trying to mow down their leader.

The constable is also learnt to have told investigators that the “bus is old and hence require a push to start”.

“I had parked it on the slope in gear so that I could start it easily. Since I had not applied brakes, it slipped a little but I controlled it immediately. The AAP leaders and others felt that I did that intentionally and they pulled me out if the bus. They started to thrash me and even abused me. I tried to tell them that it was just an accident and I did not do it with an intention to kill the AAP leader. Despite the fact that nobody was injured, the AAP volunteers got very angry,” he said in his statement.

DCP Parmaditya confirmed the registration of the complaint. “The AAP volunteers manhandled him, tore his collar and slapped him for no fault of his. We have not registered an FIR and are examining the complaint,” he said. The DCP also visited the spot for inspection of the bus.

Meanwhile, the photographs of AAP youth wing leaders who were allegedly beaten by the police while they were under detention went viral on Twitter. Senior party leaders, including CM Arvind Kejriwal retweeting the photos.