Farmers Movement Archive

Ganeshpeth senior PI shunted over intel failure

Nagpur: Senior inspector Shivram Kumbhare, attached to Ganeshpeth police station, was transferred over incomplete reporting of a Ghantanaad rally taken out by Congress corporator Bunty Shelke, who had also threatened to blow up Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) headquarters along with RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat in an earlier rally. On Tuesday evening, Shelke had taken out the rally from Shivaji Chowk under Ganeshpeth police station to RSS HQ (which comes under Kotwali police station jurisdiction) to protest against the controversial farm laws and to demand its repeal. He was accompanied by hundreds of Youth Congress activists and supporters. Beating utensils, Shelke and Youth Congress supporters reached Hedgewar Bhavan and staged a protest for at least an hour. There was no police presence when the protesters had reached there, exposing intelligence failure of Ganeshpeth police. Shelke is learnt to have made a provocative speech against RSS outside the Hedgewar Bhavan and also criticized PM Narendra Modi for implementing the farm laws, which he termed “anti-farmer”. As the rally was taken out without permission, on being informed, Kotwali police detained 19 Congress activists including Shelke, Amar Parate, Naved Ahmed, Akshay Ghatole and others under sections 142, 341, 188, 269, 270 of IPC read with 135 of Bombay Police Act 51(B), National Disaster Act 2005, read with Section 3 of Epidemic Act, 1897. A couple of days ago, Shelke had taken out a similar protest march during which he had reportedly threatened to blow up the RSS HQ and the video of the speech had gone viral. Senior PI had not reported Shelke’s provocative speech in the intelligence inputs while submitting the report. Taking serious cognisance of lackadaisical reporting by Ganeshpeth senior PI, commissioner of police Amitesh Kumar on Tuesday night transferred him from the police station and shifted to Nagpur police headquarters, said sources. DCP Lohit Matani said it was an administrative action taken due to poor reporting, but refused to comment further.

The Times of India

2021-01-14

Nagpur