Earlier the information went viral without video and the officer denied it. But then the footage of the CCT surfaced.
Patna:
A police officer in Bihar’s Nawada city put five juniors inside a lockup after they found their work unsatisfactory – something they denied but a video has now gone viral.
The Bihar Police Association – a staff union that has district units – today demanded an inquiry against Superintendent of Police Gaurav Mangla for the September 8 incident.
The security camera footage shows five policemen – Sub-Inspectors Shatrughan Paswan and Ramrekha Singh; ASI Santosh Paswan, Sanjay Singh and Rameshwar Oraon – inside the lockup at Nawada Nagar police station. They were released around midnight after about two hours.
SP Mangla, the police chief of the area said that nothing of the sort happened. Inspector Vijay Kumar Singh, in-charge of the station, obeyed his boss.
But sources said that the SP had come to the police station at around 9 pm on the night of September 8 to review the cases. He found negligence by some officers, on which he got angry and ordered them to be kept in lockup. The sources did not say what the negligence was. Nor has the SP said anything about this.
The next day the “lock them up” event on WhatsApp – no video was out yet – went viral. The SP said it was just “fake news”. It seemed to have died.
But then the CCTV footage surfaced.
Mrityunjay Kumar Singh, president of Bihar Police Association took cognizance. He said that he tried to talk to the SP but he did not pick up the phone. Today, he issued a press release demanding an inquiry.
He also expressed apprehension that the CCTV may be tampered with by the SP, the police chief of the area. Demanding an immediate FIR, Mrityunjay Kumar Singh said, “Their actions demoralized the junior officers.”
Meanwhile, the Bihar Chief Secretary issued instructions to all senior officers to “not take excessive steps” in dealing with subordinates.