Sikta MLA pleads for police reform

Balthar (WChamparan): A day after a blood-spilling and charring Holi on Saturday, a lull has enveloped Balthar police station and the surrounding countryside. The area is swarmed by police men and women in battle gear. In an arc of about 3kms, roads leading to villages are barren.

Understandably, one would be ill-advised to undertake a newshound’s nosey foray into villages from where outpoured a venomous mob of over one thousand that has left behind blood, soot and shock. “The mob snatched my cellphone,” Amar Kumar, reporter of a Hindi daily told this reporter. “A web portal’s reporter was also badly roughed up,” Kumar added.

In the aftermath of a police havaldar’s killing in a mob attack on Balthar police station after a villager’s alleged death in police custody, additional forces closed in.

A Police counter-attack was mobilised to repulse the rampaging mob. Caught in the cross-current was Birendra Prasad Gupta, the CPI-ML MLA from Sikta. “I had come to restore calm but the police began to rain baton blows on me, too,” he said and lowered his pyjamas to show black n’ blue scars. “Fortunately, SP saab saw me being beaten and he quickly moved in to save me,” the MLA said in gratitude.

But, Gupta held the police accountable for the day’s mayhem. “There should a judicial inquiry by a sitting or retired HC judge,” he told this newspaper.

“While the guilty must be brought to book, police, too, need to introspect,” Gupta said, alleging that the Saturday’s frenzy was indicative of surging undercurrent of anger against the police. “Thana dalal postey hain aur dalal thana chalate hain (police stations nurse middlemen who, in turn, control the police stations),” the MLA alleged, saying corruption rages and ordinary people are harassed. “Police sudhaar ki saqt zaroorat hai (There is a strong need of police reform),” Gupta stressed.