Belagavi jawan’s arrest over not wearing mask sparks row

Shreyas HS | TNN | Apr 28, 2020, 13:53 IST

Representative image

BELAGAVI: Four days after a CRPF commando was arrested over an alleged altercation with cops over not wearing a mask and the photograph of him kept in chains and handcuffs at a Belagavi jail went viral on social media, the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) has shot off a letter to the Karnataka DG & IGP seeking a probe into the incident.
The incident took place on April 23 when 28-year-old Sachin Savant, part of 207 CoBRA, stepped out of the house without wearing a mask at Examba village in Chikkodi taluk of Belagavi district. The first information report said Savant turned furious when a police constable asked him to wear a mask and the jawan allegedly assaulted him forcing another police constable to “resort to lathicharge”.
The jawan was arrested and produced before the magistrate court in Chikkodi. The video of the incident did the rounds on social media. After his arrest, the jawan was allegedly kept in chains and handcuffs in the Sadalaga police station, and the photo was leaked on social media.
The CRPF letter offered a different version and said Savant informed the policemen that he was not wearing a mask since he was just outside his home to wash his motorbike. The CoBRA commando was on leave and at his hometown. The CRPF’s Commando Battalion for Resolute Action (CoBRA) unit specialises in guerrilla tactics and jungle warfare.
CRPF ADGP (operations) Sanjay Arora, in a letter to the Karnataka DG & IGP, said, "Unpleasant situation could have been avoided if Karnataka police had taken the CRPF hierarchy into confidence before making the arrest”.
He said, “Keeping in view gravity of the incident and its impact on the relationship between the two police forces, I request you to kindly get the matter inquired and provide justice.” He alleged that the arrested jawan was paraded barefoot to the police station.
It is said that the CRPF is a force "with high standards of discipline and it has institutional mechanism for taking care of such situations."
Belagavi superintendent of police Laxman Nimbargi defended the action and told TOI that the jawan held the police constable by his collar and started assaulting him even as the head constable and locals urged him to retreat. Nimbargi said that the jawan kept screaming in the Sadalaga jail and exhibited violent behavior, forcing them to put him in chains and handcuffs.
The police officer denied the allegations that the jawan was paraded from Examba to the Sadalaga police station and added that it was distance of 10km, and they took him in a vehicle. He said that the video of a police constable caning the jawan was spliced, and claimed the full-length footage shows the jawan unleashing attack on the cops.
Inspector general of police (northern range), Belagavi, Raghavendra Suhas said that Savant’s supervisory controlling officer in CoBRA unit in Midnapore had been apprised of the incident and the jawan has been booked under IPC Sections of 353, 323 and 504 and Section 3 of the Indian Epidemic Act. The jawan was sent to judicial custody on April 23 and is lodged at Hindalga Central Prison in Belagavi.