– Sami Ahmad
Patna: After immense social media outrage, five policemen of Madhubani district in North Bihar were suspended for a brutal assault on Maulana Mohammad Firoz during a ‘motorcycle check’. Maulana Mohmmad Firoz was returning from Sonai village under Khirhar police station. Opposition leaders have termed these policemen as ‘saffronised’.
Maulana Firoz is a resident of Kataiya village under Benipatti police station in the Madhubani district. Madhubani SP Yogendra Kumar said that a video clip of the assault on Mohammad Firoz by the now-suspended policemen had gone viral on January 30.
Mohammad Firoz alleged that he was not only brutally assaulted but abused also. The police tried to pluck his beard also. Madhubani SP described that Firoz alleged assault and ‘other allegations’.
The SP had ordered the headquarters DySP to do an inquiry. The viral video was also taken as proof and the victim’s statement was recorded. After the initial investigation, five policemen were found guilty and eventually suspended. The suspended policemen include sub inspector Mukesh Kumar, havildar Ranjit Kumar, constable Vikram Kumar, chaukidar Suresh Paswan and Surdip Mandal. The SHO and probationer DySP Gaurav Gupta was transferred as he is also accused of torturing the Maulana.
Firoz has alleged that he was beaten even in the police station. He was released around 10 P.M. after a PR bond. However, SP Madhubani claimed that Firoz was not beaten in the police station.
Leader of opposition in Bihar Assembly Tejashwi Yadav visited the home of Maulana Firoz and inquired about the incident from him. He said that an innocent person was beaten by the police. He said the police should stop seeing the minority community with a bad angle. He demanded that a case should be registered against the guilty policemen, including the probationer DySP.
Tejashwi alleged that the government has been ‘Sangh-ised’. He said the police should not act in ‘RSS mentality’. He said he would raise this issue in Assembly and also with the state human rights commission.
The state secretary of CPI Ramnaresh Pande alleged that the police were harassing the minority community by targeting them. He said the assault on Maulana Firoz is a matter of serious concern and merely suspending the guilty policemen will not do justice to Maulana Firoz.
The general secretary of CPM-ML Dipankar Bhattacharya called the assault on Maulana Firoz by policemen a ‘dangerous sign of BJPisation of the police’. He said the politics of hate and terror will not be allowed in Bihar.
