An Assistant Sub Inspector (ASI) of Police has been suspended in Madya Pradesh’s Betul on Thursday after he was heard on an audio tape telling a lawyer that the thrashing that the lawyer received at the hands of the police was because he ‘was mistaken as a Muslim’.
Deputy Inspector General (DIG), Hoshangabad, Arvind Saxena told India Today that the ASI has been placed under suspension pending inquiry as the allegations as the charges against him are of a very serious nature.
Lawyer Deepak Bundele, based in Betul, had claimed in a application he gave to the SP, Betul that on March 23, while the lockdown was in force, he was going to a hospital to get medicines for himself when he was stopped and thrashed by police personnel at Lalli Chowk in the town.
Bundele said that he had repeatedly told the police personnel he was hypertensive and diabetic yet was thrashed which resulted in injuries in his ears and body.
Bundele went to the civil hospital and got an MLC done. The doctors referred the matter to the police but no action was taken.
Meanwhile, Bundele sent reports of the incident to the state bar association, the Madhya Pradesh High Court and the Supreme Court besides the MP Human Rights Commission.
On May 17, a team from the Kotwali police station reached his house to get his statement recorded. The team led by ASI BS Patel asked Bundele to retract the charges. Bundele refused to do so and also made a recording of the conversation.
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