Balaghat ASP suspended over custodial torture of RSS worker

The Madhya Pradesh government on Wednesday suspended Balaghat Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP), who among other policemen was charged with attempting to murder an RSS worker there.

Balaghat ASP Rajesh Sharma, who was booked and charged with section 307 (attempt to murder) of the IPC in connection with beating of RSS parcharak Suresh Yadav on September 25 evening, has been suspended, state Home Minister Bhupendra Singh told PTI over phone. He said a special team will leave for Balaghat from Bhopal to oversee the investigation into the incident. Singh had met Yadav on Wednesday, who is undergoing treatment at a private hospital in Jabalpur.

Earlier, two police officers attached to Baihar police station in Balaghat were suspended for allegedly beating up Yadav, who was arrested for posting objectionable comments on AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi. The police, after receiving a complaint that Yadav had posted some comments about Owaisi on WhatsApp, brought him to Baihar police station on the evening of September 25.

Yadav escaped and hid in the nearby house of Swami Prasad Asati. However, police caught him and brought him back to the station. They booked him under IPC section 295 (a) (outraging religious feeling). And he was allegedly beaten up brutally in police custody.

Meanwhile, the RSS has called for a bandh in Balaghat tomorrow to protest the alleged custodial assault on its pracharak.