Opposition parties in Maharashtra Assembly today demanded action against a woman police officer from Kolhapur for allegedly misbehaving with an MLA and "falsely implicating" him in a molestation case.
Raising a question of breach of privilege, Rajesh Kshirsagar (Shiv Sena) informed the House that Additional Superintendent of Police, Kolhapur, Jyotipriya Singh had allegedly beaten him up and implicated him in a "false" case of molestation.
In September this year, Kshirsagar and many others had been booked for allegedly molesting the police officer after clashes broke out between the police and some mandal activists during the Ganesh immersion procession.
When Kshirsagar demanded action against Jyotipriya, the entire Opposition came out in his support and created noisy scenes prompting the Speaker Dilip Walse Patil to adjourn the House for one hour.
After the resumption of the proceedings, Home Minister R R Patil, who was reluctant to initiate action against Jyotipriya, later agreed to order an inquiry by the Inspector General of Police, Kolhapur range.
Patil later told the House that the officers in the uniform were reportedly indulging in rude behaviour not only with the general public, but also with the elected representatives, as their posting in particular area (constituency) was just for three years.
He appealed to the members of the House to stay away from arguing with police officers, but asked them to report such matters to him either in writing or in person.
Coming out in support of Kshirsagar, Opposition Leader Eknath Khadse and BJP MLA Girish Bapat alleged that police were targeting the elected representatives.
