Madhya Pradesh: Cops apologise after beating up lawyer; say, we mistook you for a Muslim

In a brutal incident, where a lawyer Deepak Bundele has been beaten up by a group of police personnel in Betul, Madhya Pradesh after he was mistakenly identified as Muslim by the cops, a report in The Wire said.

On March 23, Deepak Bundele was reportedly on his way to the hospital for his treatment as he is a patient of acute diabetic and blood pressure, he was stopped by the police in midway, without hearing him police started slapping him.

“The nationwide lockdown hadn’t come into place then but Section 144 had been imposed in Betul. I have been an acute diabetic and blood pressure patient for the last 15 years. Since I was not feeling well, I decided to visit the hospital and get some medicines. But I was stopped by the police midway,” Deepak said while talking to The Wire.

After nearly a month he has been pursued by the police to withdraw his complaint as defending themselves police said, he was mistakenly identified as Muslim and was ended up beaten the state police.

“I told them that they should act within constitutional limits, and that I was ready to be detained under Section 188 of the Indian Penal Code if the police thought so. On hearing this, the police personnel lost their temper, and started abusing me and the Indian constitution. Within no time, many police officials came and started beating me up with sticks,” Deepak Bundele said.

According to The Wire, Deepak called his friend and brother to accompany him to the hospital later, and got a medicolegal case (MLC) report done.

On March 24, Bundele filed a complaint with the district Superintendent of Police DS Bhadoria and the state Director General of Police Vivek Johri. He wrote subsequent letters to the Chief Minister, state’s human rights commission, the Chief Justice of Madhya Pradesh high court and top government officials.

Bundele also filed a RTI application for the CCTV footage of March 23 incident, but was denied the information, according to the report.

“I received a reply saying that I had not clearly stated the reason for which I made the RTI request. But I have been told unofficially that the CCTV footage may have been deleted from the government files,” he said.

Deepak Bundele alleges that police have been trying to lure him to withdraw the complaint.

“First, some of the top officials told me that they could issue a statement condemning and apologising for the incident, if I withdraw my complaint. Then some told me that if my brother, who is also a lawyer, and I wanted to practice law peacefully, I should stop pursuing my complaint”, the lawyer said.

Few police officials on May 17 came Deepak’s house to record his version. This is when the police told him that this was a case of mistaken identity, and that the police officials thought he was a Muslim.

I was struck by the way the police officials apologised. Even if I was a Muslim, what gives the police the right to assault them without any cause, Deepak said.

He also claimed that no FIR has been registered till now.