Misbehaviour with woman in Lakhimpur Kheri: Circle officer, 5 policemen suspended

LUCKNOW: Chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday ordered suspension of six cops, including a police circle officer, posted in Lakhimpur Kheri for their laxity during the Thursday violence.
The action was taken after the video clip of two men pulling a woman proposer by her sari during the nomination for the block chairman polls on Thursday went viral.
Those suspended include police circle officer, Mohamadi Abhay Pratap, SHO, Pasgawan, Adarsh, Inspector, crime branch, Hanuman Prasad, and three sub-inspectors -- Durgesh Gangwar, Ugrasen Singh, and Mahesh Pratap.
The woman in the video was the proposer of a Samajwadi Party-backed candidate. The CM said that police must ensure proper security outside the polling stations ahead of block pramukh voting and said that strict action would be taken against those found guilty in the incident.
He also said that the police force must be extra vigilant and sensitive. Necessary action should be taken by confiscating the weapons of those showing arms, Yogi ordered.
Meanwhile, Kheri SP Vijay Dhull said that the two found misbehaving with the woman were arrested and would be produced in the court soon.
‘Only those coming to vote to be given entry’
“The two have been booked under the charges of sexual assault, rioting, punishment for undue influence or personation at an election and robbery,” said the SP.
IG, Lucknow Range, Laxmi Singh, told TOI that both the CO and the SHO failed to discharge their duties and other cops who were deployed near the nomination center also had no clue of the incident.
“A two-layered barricading outside polling centres for Saturday’s block pramukh voting has been installed, while vehicles would be stopped almost one kilometre away from the polling centres and only those coming to vote will be allowed inside the polling centre,” said Singh.
The officer also said that there were 59 polling centres in her range and additional companies of PAC and women cops have been deployed on sensitive centres.