A senior police officer鈥檚 precise directive to personnel in Odisha guarding CM Mohan Charan Majhi鈥檚 residence during a Congress party protest has gone viral. As per the NDTV, the officer instructed to 鈥渂reak the legs鈥 of the protestors who were trying to reach towards the circular barbed wire that went in a loop around the barricade.
This comes after the Congress workers came to protest against the stampede that happened near Puri鈥檚 Shree Gundicha temple during a ceremony linked to the ongoing Rath Yatra festival.
Protesters attributed the stampede to crowd mismanagement and negligence, which resulted in three deaths and 50 injuries.
A large police force was posted outside CM Majhi鈥檚 house in anticipation of the protest by the Congress workers.
Bhubaneswar Additional Commissioner of Police (ACP) Narasingha Bhol was among the officers who supervised the deployment.
In the viral video, Bhol walked to the last barricade among a row of barricades and gave instructions to police personnel standing there. Pointing his index finger towards a circular barbed wire that went in a loop around the barricade, the ACP said, 鈥淚f anybody reaches here, break their leg. Don鈥檛 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.鈥
鈥淵es, sir, yes, sir,鈥 the policemen behind the last barricade responded to the instruction given by the Indian Police Service (IPS) officer.
According to NDTV, after the video went viral on social media, Bhol said that his comment was taken out of context.
鈥淭here is a place, time and context in everything. Where was it happening, when was it happening鈥 If you see the video, I told the personnel that 鈥榳e are there to arrest them鈥,鈥 Bhol said to NDTV on the phone, referring to a spot some distance away from the barricade. 鈥淏efore 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.鈥
鈥淲e are free to apply maximum force to stop unlawful assembly,鈥 the police officer added.
The Odisha government has indeed launched an administrative investigation into the Puri stampede that occurred during Lord Jagannath鈥檚 Rath Yatra. State Law Minister Prithiviraj Harichandan said Development Commissioner Anu Garg will submit a report to the chief minister within 30 days.
鈥淭he state government will take stern action against those responsible for the tragic incident,鈥 the law minister said.
Puri鈥檚 Chief District Medical Officer, Kishore Satapathy, stated that all injured individuals were discharged from the government health facility by 8 pm on Sunday, according to PTI.