Write Comment     |     E-Mail To a Friend     |     Facebook     |     Twitter     |     Print

In a rare display of hostility towards the BJP, hundreds of RSS workers came out on the streets on Tuesday night and vandalised its Indore district office after an assistant superintendant of police (ASP) was issued marching orders.

ASP Rakesh Singh was reportedly being pressurised to remove the names of some BJP leaders, including an MLA, from an FIR filed by a notorious criminal, Manoj Parmar, sources said.

Parmar, who has almost two dozen cases against his name, is believed to be close to some RSS functionaries in the state. The FIR, naming BJP MLA Sudarshan Gupta and some other leaders, was filed by Parmar after he was shot at during a religious procession on July 30. The RSS activists were demanding a "fair probe" into the incident.

While Gupta said the allegations levelled against him were "false" and part of a "political conspiracy", local BJP leaders allegedly put pressure on the administration demanding deletion of his name from the FIR and sought action against police officers who took down the complaint "without verification". The BJP leaders managed to get the ASP transferred.

The situation took an ugly turn on Tuesday when the RSS activists came to know about the relieving order of the ASP. Around 10 pm, nearly 200 RSS activists, allegedly led by RSS functionary Dalip Jain, ransacked the Indore district BJP office. They damaged the office furniture and electronic gadgets, shouting anti-CM slogans. Later they also burnt CM’s effigy, a BJP leader said. The RSS workers sought cancellation of the ASP’s transfer order.

The panic-stricken workers present in the BJP office locked themselves in a room for safety, Jain said.

The authorities said no one was injured in the incident. "No case has been registered so far in the incident as nobody turned up for filing a report. Additional police force was deployed outside the BJP building to disperse the protestors," police said.