Congress says MP farmers stripped, thrashed by police; govt denies

Opposition Congress on Wednesday alleged that a group of farmers returning from a protest for declaring Tikamgarh as a drought-hit district were “detained, stripped and beaten up” by the police last evening, charges denied by the BJP government.

The Congress also accused the Madhya Pradesh government of suppressing the voice of farmers, even as Home Minister Bhupendra Singh asked the police chief to conduct an inquiry and file a report within three days.

The Congress had organised a farmers’ protest outside the Tikamgarh collectorate seeking drought-hit status for the district, which received scanty rainfall this year.

Congress leader and former minister Yadvendra Singh said the police detained some of the protesters returning home, as well as some farmers just passing by and had nothing to do with the protest.

“They were kept at the Dehat police station, stripped and severely beaten up by the police,” Singh alleged.

In Bhopal, however, state Home Minister Bhupendra Singh said, “No farmer was beaten up in the police station.”

But, he added the government has taken such reports seriously and asked the Director General of Police to conduct an inquiry into the allegations of stripping and beating up of farmers and submit a report within three days.