As many as 12 police personnel, including a woman DSP and a police station in-charge, have been suspended in Madhya Pradesh on charges of physical assault leading to death, and misappropriation of seized money, in two separate cases in the past 24 hours.
In the first incident reported from the state capital, two constables of the Piplani police station have been suspended after they were accused of brutally thrashing a youth with wooden canes, leading to his death.
As per DCP Vivek Singh, Constables Santosh Bamaniya, and Saurabh Arya have been suspended.
Both were caught on CCTV footage assaulting the youth, Udit Gaiki (21) with wooden sticks, after finding the youth and his friends consuming alcohol on the road in the Indrapuri locality at around 1.30 AM on Friday.
An inquiry has also been initiated into the incident.
In the second incident, DSP Pooja Pandey, presently posted as SDOP in Seoni district, has been suspended with immediate effect along with nine other cops, on charges of embezzling around Rs 1.5 crore out of Rs three crore seized from an alleged hawala trader on October 9.
Jabalpur Zone IG Pramod Verma had ordered an inquiry into the matter, after the trader lodged a complaint in the matter.
The money was confiscated from one Sohan Parmar, when he was taking it by car to Nagpur, during checking at Sheeldevi village in Seoni.
The complainant alleged that the total money was Rs 2.96 crore, but the cops initially did not mention it at all in any official record, and finally wrote down the seized amount as only Rs 1.5 crore.
On the basis of the initial findings of the internal inquiry, SDOP Pooja Pandey, Bandol Police Station in-charge Sub Inspector Arpit Bhairam, and Constable Neeraj Rajput have been suspended with immediate effect.
Similarly, seven other cops of the woman SDOP’s staff have also been suspended. They include Pooja Pandey’s office Reader Head Constable Ravindra Uikey, Head Constable Makhan, Constable Jagdish Yadav, Constable Yogendra Chaurasia, and Pooja Pandey’s official driver Constable Ritesh, and her two police gunmen Constables Sadafal and Kedar.