Residents protesting SHO’s ‘misbehaviour’ lathicharged
A group of people protesting the alleged misbehaviour by Sanour station house officer (SHO) Amanpal Singh were beaten up by the local police led by deputy superintendent of police (DSP) Jagjit Singh and the SHO, on Saturday evening.
A group of people protesting the alleged misbehaviour by Sanour station house officer (SHO) Amanpal Singh were beaten up by the local police led by deputy superintendent of police (DSP) Jagjit Singh and the SHO, on Saturday evening.
Inspector Amanpal had supposedly stopped a motorcyclist Gurinder SIngh who had covered his face using a handkerchief to protect himself from the heat.
An argument broke out between the two as Gurinder objected to the SHO’s “rude behavior”. People who witnessed the incident claimed that the SHO had said it was “illegal to travel with one’s face covered”. He had also “manhandled “the motorcyclist which caused a protest in the area.
Saying that the police, while sheltering criminals, had become a threat to citizens, shopkeepers from adjoining areas held a protest in the Sanour main bazaar.
Led by Aam Addmi Party (AAP) leader Harjit Singh and other prominent persons including former nagar council president Narinder Kumar and a few farmer leaders, the protestors reached the police station to gherao the SHO.
When DSP Jagjit Singh, who tried pacifying the agitators, saw that the protest was getting out of hand with more people joining it, he ordered a lathicharge.
As many as half a dozen persons sustained injuries in the incident.
The SHO said the police was compelled to resort to lati-charge as “anti-social elements tried to take advantage of the situation even as the protestors started misbehaving with the policemen”.
An FIR had been registered against few of the protestors, he added.
Senior superintendent of police (SSP) Hardial Singh Mann said that he had directed superintendent of police Jaskaran Singh Teja to conduct an inquiry into the violence and said those found guilty would be punished.