Bhubaneswar: A senior police officer in Odisha has reportedly given instruction to his subordinates to break the legs of protesters gathered outside Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi's house.
The Congress workers were protesting accusing the government of crowd mismanagement and negligence leading to a stampede in Puri’s Shree Gundicha temple, killing three devotees and injuring 50 others on Sunday.
Police placed barbed wire barricade outside the chief minister’s residence anticipating protest by the Congress workers.
Among the officers overseeing the security, Bhubaneswar Additional Commissioner of Police (ACP) Narasingha Bhol was seen in a footage walking towards the barricade and giving instructions to police personnel there.
Pointing his index finger at the barricade, the ACP directed the officers to use force against the protesters ‘If anybody reaches here, break their leg. Don't catch them, just break their legs. We are standing there [some distance away] to catch them. Whoever breaks a leg, come to me and take a reward’.
Responding to the instruction, the police personnel at the barricade mouthed ‘Yes, sir, yes, sir’.
However, Narasingha Bhol later told NDTV that his comment was taken out of context, adding: ‘There is a place, time and context in everything. Where was it happening, when was it happening... If you see the video, I told the personnel that 'we are there to arrest them.’
With ‘'we are there to arrest them’, he reportedly meant some distance away from the barricade to arrest the protesters.
The officer added that ‘Before reaching the spot where I was standing, there were two barricades. The order was to detain unruly protesters at the first barricade itself. However, if somebody breached the two barricades and went beyond them, then that person has already broken the law. He is part of an unlawful assembly.’
Referring to the measure in place the officer said that the police were ‘free to apply maximum force to stop unlawful assembly’.
The Odisha government has started an investigation into the stampede with State Law Minister Prithiviraj Harichandan stating that a report regarding it will be submitted to the chief minister within 30 days.
‘The state government will take stern action against those responsible for the tragic incident,’ the law minister reportedly said.
All the injured in the stampede were released from hospital by 8 pm on Sunday, according to Puri's Chief District Medical Officer Kishore Satapathy.