"Break Their Legs": Odisha Police Officer's Instruction At Protest Goes Viral. "Out Of Context," He Says
A senior police officer's very specific instruction to police personnel guarding a barbed wire barricade outside Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi's house during a protest by Congress party workers has gone viral on social media.
The Congress workers came to protest against what they called crowd mismanagement and negligence after three people were killed and 50 were injured in a stampede in Puri on Sunday.
The incident happened near Puri's Shree Gundicha temple during a ceremony linked to the ongoing Rath Yatra festival.
A large police force was posted outside the chief minister's house in anticipation of the protest by the Congress workers.
One of the officers who oversaw the deployment was Bhubaneswar Additional Commissioner of Police (ACP) Narasingha Bhol.
In the video that went viral, Mr Bhol walked to the last barricade among a row of barricades and gave instructions to police personnel standing there.
His index finger pointing towards a circular barbed wire that went in a loop around the barricade, the ACP said, "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."
"Yes, sir, yes, sir," the policemen behind the last barricade responded to the instruction given by the Indian Police Service (IPS) officer.
After the video went viral on social media, Mr Bhol told NDTV on phone that his comment was taken out of context.
"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'," Mr Bhol said, referring to a spot some distance away from the barricade. "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."
The police officer added, "We are free to apply maximum force to stop unlawful assembly."
The Odisha government has launched an administrative investigation into the Puri stampede. State Law Minister Prithiviraj Harichandan said Development Commissioner Anu Garg will submit a report to the chief minister within 30 days.
"The state government will take stern action against those responsible for the tragic incident," the law minister said.
Puri's Chief District Medical Officer Kishore Satapathy told news agency PTI that all injured people were discharged from a government health facility by 8 pm on Sunday.
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