In a shocking incident, Sachin Sunil Savant, a CRPF COBRA commando was beaten, abused, humiliated and dragged to the police station in Belgavi district, Karnataka.
A twitter user Mithanshu had shared the story of the COBRA commando in a post, detailing the incident. The CRPF staffer was seen tied up in chains in the police station.
I hope this is not what we call a citizen-centric policing and perhaps it’s too much demeaning a behaviour with a uniformed personnel, I hope competent authorities will take suitable action to rectify the wrong which has been committed@DgpKarnataka @crpfindia @CoBRASECTORHQ pic.twitter.com/5ZoQAOIjbY
— Mithanshu Chaudhary (@MITHANSHU) April 26, 2020
In a note, Mithanshu had informed that the CRPF jawan was on leave and in his home in Yaksamba village in the Chikkodi Taluk in Belgavi district. On 23 April, the jawan was cleaning his bike in front of his house when he was approached by the police and accosted for not wearing a mask. Sachin Sawant was then allegedly beaten by the police personnel, without any warning.
Despite informing the police personnel that he is a CRPF commando and is currently on leave, and since he was cleaning his bike in front of his own house and not going anywhere, and thus he did not need to wear a mask, the police personnel allegedly kept beating and abusing him.
Mithanshu’s post added that Sachin Savant then was paraded to the police station in handcuffs and was put under custody. The SHO of the police station had allegedly registered an FIR under section 353 (Assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty),504 & 505 (Intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) of IPC. Mithanshu has informed that the FIR has been registered without informing the controlling authority of the CRPF commando.
As per a report in News 18, Belgavi SP Laxman Nimbargi stated, “An argument started regarding central police versus state police, the CRPF jawan then held the collar of our constable and started kicking him, the head constable then had to rescue his colleague, that’s when you see him using the lathi, based on which the FIR was registered”.
The police have also stated that during interrogation, the CRPF staffer has admitted that he was in a foul mood because of a fight in his household.
In a video of the incident shared by journalist Soumyadipta, the commando is seen standing near a bike (his service bike, as per reports), while multiple police personnel argue with him. One police official is even seen holding the pants of the CRPF jawan in a humiliating manner, in an apparent attempt to stop him. The police officials repeatedly push and shove the jawan.
The video of the assault on the CRPF Commando.
— Soumyadipta (@Soumyadipta) April 26, 2020
Notice how a cop is holding his pants as he argues with other cops. He is constantly pulling the pants. Notice for how long Cobra Commando Sachin Savant holds his patience. Then he’s attacked with a lathipic.twitter.com/UxYgNfDvJT
In the video, after some argument, the jawan is attacked with a lathi by the police. After that, the jawan also retaliates.
As per Soumyadipta’s post, Sachin Savant is posted with the 27 COBRA commando Battalion and was on leave. However, he was reportedly tying to explain to the police officials that he was servicing his bike, because the COBRA commandos have to always remain on standby for any emergency. As per the post, since he was neither loitering or roaming around, he was not violating the lockdown rules in any manner.
Soumyadipta has further informed that the Belgavi police has now written to Sachin Savant’s commanding officer in Bengal, informing about the Jawan’s arrest. The letter, however, states that Savant has abused and attacked the police officials first.
The images of the jawan being tied up in chains and the video of the incident have created a furore on social media.
