A mob of more than 50 people forcefully entered a police station in Madya Pradesh's Burhanpur district on Friday and freed three detainees, one of them a dacoit, police officials said. During the rampage, the mob also attacked police officials with sticks.
The incident, which took place around 3 am, was recorded on the CCTV camera placed at the police station. Four personnel were on duty at the time.
Three policemen were injured and are undergoing treatment at a private hospital.
The mob freed dacoit Hema Meghwal, who was carrying a reward of ₹ 32,000, and their two other associates during the rampage at Nepanagar police station. Meghwal was arrested a few days ago, a police official said.
Senior officials including Collector Bhavya Mittal and the superintendent of police reached the spot after being alerted about the attack, the official said.
The police are using CCTV footage to identify the attackers, he said.
Last month, 13 people were injured in Burhanpur district after an anti-encroachment exercise by the forest department sparked a violent clash with illegal occupants of forest land.
The encroachers - believed to be 150 in number - used crude bombs, bows and arrows, and countrymade firearms to stop the anti-encroachment team from approaching the woods. Some villagers accompanying the forest team also suffered serious injuries.
"I am against the use of guns for securing forest. They (encroachers) are our own people, they are not foreigners or our enemies. They are taking the law into their hands due to their greed for land. Efforts are on to convince them. If they do not agree, then stern action will be taken against them," Forest Minister Vijay Shah said.
Asked whether the government was going soft on encroachers due to fear of losing the tribal vote bank, he said, "There is no question of vote bank. We have brought so many schemes for tribal brothers for a long time, it won't be proper to say that we are thinking about vote bank".
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