Brigadier SP Navathe, the Deputy Commandant of College of Military Engineering (CME), conceded on Thursday that there was no need to send a Quick Response Team (QRT) of armed army personnel to Alka Theatre Chowk after a scuffle took place between CME’s Young Officers (YOs) and Pune police personnel on January 31.
The YOs of CME allegedly assaulted the policemen and the media crew near Alka Talkies after two YOs were stopped by the traffic police for illegally entering the Sambhaji Bridge January 31. After the ruckus between the YOs and the police, the army had rushed a QRT team to the spot which added to the chaos during which some media personnel were manhandled.
Speaking to media persons on Thursday, Brigadier Navathe said, “I admit that there was panic among the citizens due to the presence of armed army personnel. There was no need to send QRT as it was not a terrorist attack.’’
CME spokserperson Col Abhijit Mitra said, “We should not have reacted in this manner. We should not have rushed a QRT team to the civil area of the city as it was not required. We will soon take a policy decision on the issue.’’
However, CME officials claimed that the decision of sending a QRT team was taken after the Pune police contacted them seeking help to control the situation.
Navathe said, “Deputy commissioner of police Makarand Ranade called the Colonel of Pune Sub Area saying that the situation was going out of hand and he asked for army’s assistance. Hence, we sent a QRT team from Southern Command to take the control of the situation.’’
Maintaining that the YOs had been provoked to react the way they behaved, Navathe said such an incident should not have happened. He said, “The army has initiated a court of inquiry in this matter and if the officers are found guilty, they will face disciplinary action according to the Army Act, 1950’’
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