Cop seeks protection from mobs, gets the boot

Police give protection to others. But here's a case of protectors seeking protection.

Satyajit Mishra, the president of Odisha Police Association(OPA), a body of state cadre police officers, placed a demand before the Naveen Patnaik administration seeking protection from public fury and mob attacks on police officials on duty. However, he was suspended by the State Director General of Police (DGP) R P Sharma.

“The manner in which police officials are being frequently attacked by the public is highly condemnable. It is high time the state government came out with special legislation to protect police personnel from mob attacks,” Satyajit Mishra said recently. Police officials across the ranks have already started feeling unsafe, he went on to add.

The story behind Mishra's unprecedented demand is interesting. The in-charge of a police station was thrashed publicly by an irate mob of villagers for arriving late for an investigation, at Baliapal in north Odisha Balasore district recently.

A minor boy working in a roadside dhaba was found hanging inside the eatery. The parents of the boy as well as local villagers alleged that he was murdered by the dhaba owner and his associates. When the in-charge of the local police station, an officer in the rank of inspector, reached the spot for investigation, the mob attacked him for arriving late, accusing him of trying to protect the culprits.

A video of the police officers running for their lives on the street, being chased and beaten up by a frenzied mob had gone viral on the local TV news channels and social media platforms.

This was not an isolated case. Similar incidents had occurred earlier in places like Bhadrak, Ganjam and even in a slum area in Bhubaneswar, which have now prompted the cops to seek protection.