Dewas: Joining the league of BJP MLAs hitting headlines for all the wrong reasons, a Madhya Pradesh legislator has been caught on camera slapping a constable in Dewas district’s Uday Nagar police station.
Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Champalal Dewda, from Bagli assembly constituency, barged into the police station late on Thursday night and beat up police constable Santosh Ivanati over an argument between his nephew and the police officer.
The trouble reportedly began when the legislator’s nephew arrived at the police station and entered a restricted area where two accused were kept. The nephew took a water bottle from one of the accused, following which Ivanati questioned him.
This enraged the man, who entered into an argument with the constable and later informed his MLA uncle.
Obliging his nephew, Dewda rushed to the police station, slapped Ivanati and hurled abuses at him for questioning his relative’s action.
The entire incident was caught on CCTV cameras installed in the police station. Dewda was later booked along with his two associates on the complaint of the constable.
Talking to media on Friday, Bagli MLA denied beating up Ivanati along with his associates.
He claimed that his son and nephew had gone to a market and a thief had decamped with their scooter.
“As the two chased the thief, he fled the spot dumping the vehicle on the spot. When the two approached the police, officers misbehaved with them,” Dewda said.
Following the incident, the local BJP leaders in Dewas gave a bandh call on Friday against police action.
“When I entered the police station, I saw the officers beating up my son and nephew and I only intervened to save them. Someone has forged the CCTV footage,” claimed the MLA.
Slamming the MLA over the incident, Congress spokesperson Sangita Sharma said that even the policemen are not safe in the BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh. “Every section of the society was harassed in CM Shivraj’s rule,” she alleged.