API’s ‘rude’ remark triggers angry protest

Nagpur: An altercation between an officer of Asst PI rank of Yashodhara Nagar police station and a bunch of residents of Vinoba Bhave Nagar triggered an agitation leading to burning of tyres and disruption of traffic on Outer Ring Road for half an hour on Saturday early morning. Several shopkeepers too suspended their business in the morning for several hours.
Yashodhara Nagar police have registered offence against seven persons, identified as Mulchand Meher, Rajesh Pohad, Kailash Lanjewar, Raj Khatri, Dilip Wakhale and Pankaj Thakre, for rioting and wrongful restraint.
The citizens had initially assembled on the road to protest a burglary at a grocery shop and attempts on two more such outlets near Gandhi Chowk came to fore in the early morning. API DR Bawankar, deployed in the night round, reached Vinobha Bhave Nagar to inquire into the complaints regarding the theft at the grocery shop of Kailash Lanjewar and attempts at made at outlets owned by Dnyaneshwar Dekate and another Hazare.
The citizens are learnt to have started protesting the occurrence of such incidents at regular intervals as API Bawankar had reached the spot. The protests seem not to have gone down well with the officer, which led to an argument. API Bawankar’s few terse remarks regarding policing learnt to have angered the citizens which caused the flare-up.
Some citizens also started pointing out at the daylight dacoity at the residence of Parate family last month though it was detected promptly. Local residents, like Mulchand Meher, pointed out the burglaries at shops owned by Moreshwar Lanjewar in the last week. A grocery shop owned by Sadashiv Bhende too was burgled some time back. Bhende’s jewellery shop too was burgled in the same locality.
Madhukar Dhotarkar, another grocer, claimed that burglars had struck at his establishment too. “There should be proper patrolling and increased police presence. If the cops were claiming to be engaged in patrolling, then why are thefts taking place. The cops must be sleeping somewhere else,” he said.
Senior PI GM Mujawar of Yashodhara Nagar police station said, “Bawankar was trying to suggest security measures but later allowed the situation to slip out of hand,” he said.
It’s learnt that PI Mujawar was in dark till late regarding the agitation as Bawankar failed to alert him on time. Later, it was Mujawar’s intervention which prompted a peaceful dispersal of the crowd. DCP, Zone-IV, Abhinash Kumar too interacted with the local residents after the situation was brought under control.