JOIN USThe Havildar and Constable Association of Odisha has threatened to launch a statewide agitation in protest against the alleged molestation of a womam constable here on Thursday.
The alleged incident had taken place during the violence at a Congress rally near the state assembly on Thursday. The association has demanded action against the culprit within 48 hours, failing which it threatened to launch a statewide agitation in protest.
“The manner in which Congress workers and activists attacked the woman constable on duty, it appears they had no respect for women. This is not acceptable in a civilized society. We will be forced to hit the street if culprits involved in the incident are not apprehended as early as possible”, the association president, Padmanabha Behera, said.
The Police Officers’ Association has also extended its support to its Havildar and Constable counterpart and submitted a memorandum to the Director General of Police, Prakash Mishra, demanding a crime branch probe into the incident.
The police associations have also demanded the arrest of Pradesh Congress Committee(PCC) chief Niranjan Patnaik and AICC Odisha in charge and former union minister Jagdish Tytler for instigating the party workers to attack the police. “Both Niranjan Patnaik and Tytler should be arrested immediately as they had provoked the Congress workers to attack the police,” Behera said on Friday.
The lady police constable identified as Pramila Padhi, attached to the Infocity police station here, was pushed to the ground, kicked and severely beaten up by a mob during the clash between Congress activists and the police at the Mahatma Gandhi Marg here.
Padhi has been admitted into a private hospital here with multiple fractures and other injuries. In a statement, she has accused some protestors of molesting her while mercilessly beating her up. “It was a near death experience for me and would haunt me for rest of my life”, she has said.
The Congress leaders have expressed regret over the attack but blamed the media for reporting “one sided stories.”