E-Paper
Reservation stir: police official suspended
Mumbai police on Monday suspended a senior police official in connection with the baton charge on medical students near Raj Bhawan on May 13.
Mumbai police on Monday suspended a senior police official in connection with the baton charge on medical students near Raj Bhawan on May 13.
Meanwhile, the stir against reservation intensified with IMA and medical students staging a protest rally in Mumbai.
Deputy Chief Minister RR Patil, after meeting an Indian Medical Association delegation, said police inspector Madhukar Sankhe of the Malabar Hill police station, who ordered the police action on medical students, had been suspended "for giving false information to his superiors that there was no baton charge".
Members of the Mumbai Chapter of IMA, medical students and doctors participated in a sit-in demonstration at Azad maidan in Mumbai to oppose reservations in institutes of higher education and protest against the "brutalities inflicted by police on hapless medical students".
A delegation later staged a rally from the Maidan to Mantralaya (secretariat) where they met Patil, who informed them that the report of an inquiry ordered into the incident would be out within 15 days.
In a counter protest, the Ramdas Athavale-led Republican Party of India organised demonstrations at Azad Maidan, not far from the venue of the anti-quota dharna, to express the party's support for reservations.
Meanwhile, Mumbai police commissioner AN Roy, who has been asked to conduct an inquiry into Saturday's incident, on Monday admitted that the students were baton-charged. He had earlier denied that such an action had ever taken place.
