By IANS
New Delhi : Thousands of people who took to the streets over the reported misconduct of some policemen Saturday evening torched two police posts and attacked policemen in south Delhi’s Jamia Nagar area, injuring 15 cops, two of them critically.
The police fired in the air, used teargas shells and baton-charged the mob around a police post, Joint Commissioner of Police (Southern Range) Rajesh Kumar told IANS.
Four companies of Delhi Armed Police had been rushed to the area to reinforce the local cops, Kumar added.
“We are ascertaining the situation and trying to restore peace in the area. The situation is still tense,” he said.
Akhileshwar Sharoop Yadav, additional station house officer of the New Friends Colony police station, received critical injuries when beaten up by the mob and was in coma at the Apollo hospital. A constable identified as Deepak also received serious injuries and was in the same hospital.
According to locals, the violence started in Batla House area in the evening after some policemen from the New Friends Colony police station went to remove encroachments from the Jamia Nagar market.
Local residents said the police officials demanded a bribe from the some shopkeepers.
“We refused, saying we could only give money after earning a profit from the sales. They didn’t listen to us and kicked a cart, where a copy of the Quran had been kept for sale. They didn’t stop there and beat three sellers mercilessly,” said Wali, who runs a shop in the market.
A report about this incident spread in the area and fuelled the anger.
Soon, a large crowd coming out of a mosque after evening prayers during Ramadan gathered outside the Jamia police post and protested the action of the policemen.
The protestors turned violent and started to throw stones at the police post, injuring the policemen in the process.
The mob also set the police post on fire, despite the police firing in the air, using teargas and charging them with batons.
The violence spread quickly to the adjoining area of Shaheen Bagh and protestors there torched another police post.
Police officials informally requested television channels not to telecast news of the incidents for at least a few hours, lest it led to spread of violence.