In yet another attack against on-duty personnel, a violent mob brutally assaulted and pelted stones at a police constable in Madhya Pradesh’s Indore district after he urged the residents to stay indoors to contain the spread of the Wuhan coronavirus.
According to the reports, a police constable was on his duty in Chandan Nagar area of Indore, where he asked residents to stay inside their houses during the nationwide. However, an angry mob, defying the lockdown orders, assaulted the police constable and pelted stones at him.
A video of the incident also went viral on social media, in which the policeman was seen running to save himself from seven to eight people who were throwing stones and chasing him. One of the miscreants was seen picking up a stick while chasing the policeman.
Five people, identified as Javed (25), Imran Khan (24), Nasir Khan (58), Sali Khan (50) and Samir Anwar (22) have been arrested.
Indore mei fir se paththar baaji. Naam to nahi pata lekin Kapdo se pehchan saktepic.twitter.com/7Vd2l4BLTz
— Shash (@Pokershasha) April 8, 2020
Superintendent of Police Mahesh Chandra Jain, speaking to the media, added that when the constable asked some people out on streets to go back home, they started arguing and threw stones at him. The policeman then ran for his life and alerted his seniors following which additional force was rushed to the area, he said.
The accused have been booked under IPC sections 147 (rioting), 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant), 353 (assault of criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty) and other relevant provisions.
“We are also recommending to the district administration to book Javed and Imran Khan under the National Security Act (NSA),” Jain said. The search was on for another absconding accused, he added.
The attack on policemen comes just weeks after a similar incident that had taken place in Indore when two women doctors were injured after stones were pelted at them by an angry mob when they went to Tatpatti Bakhal area of Indore for contact tracing of COVID-19 patients.
Earlier, two policemen on lockdown enforcement duty were also injured after a mob attacked them with knives and in Bhopal’s old city area on Monday night. The police team was asking the residents to stay indoors when they were attacked by a group led by Shahid Qureshi alias Kabootar. A resident of Islampura, he jumped from a building to escape arrest but was injured in the process.
At a time when the healthcare workers, policemen are risking their lives to limit the spread of the Chinese epidemic, there have been concerted attacks against them by some anti-social elements refusing to obey lockdown and follow protocols to check the disease spread.
We had reported a series of incidents where violent mobs had unleashed violence against frontline workers at a time when they are risking their lives to limit the spread of the Chinese epidemic.
