BJP's Kapil Dutt Sharma (sitting, right) has been accused of misbehaving with the senior police officer
Named in a case linked to a communal flare-up, a local BJP leader in Uttar Pradesh's Meerut has been caught on camera trying to bully the police into withdrawing the case against him and others. "How did you file a case against Hindus?" Kapil Dutt Sharma shouts at the senior police officer in his office.
The video, widely circulated in western Uttar Pradesh, was taken on a mobile phone last Saturday.
Manzil Saini, the Meerut district police chief, said they had sent a detailed report to the police headquarters in this connection. "We have sent an intelligence report on this individual to our senior officers... There have been instances of misbehaviour earlier too", she said.
Kapil Dutt Sharma, a local BJP leader and formerly an officer bearer in the local party unit, had barged into the office on Man Singh Chauhan, a senior police officer in Meerut. He was accompanied by supporters and members of the city's business community. The BJP leader and his men were angry that a case was registered against Mr Sharma in a local police station a few days earlier.
Mr Sharma had gone to a market area during a flare up between Hindu and Muslim shopkeepers in the western UP town on Thursday, reportedly sided with one community and later gone to the police station in favour of that community.
"Will these people not call anyone? Did I got to the spot and create a ruckus? I was helping the police in fact. And then I find out that there is a case against me? What enmity are you taking out against me? And what enmity do you have against Hindus, that you filed a case against them?" Mr Sharma is seen telling the senior police officer, insisting that the Hindus were living in a part of the city where they were in a minority, and suppressed.
"This has happened because of you, and you are filing a case against our people? You don't know Meerut's history. You don't know?" he said.
When the officer tries to explain, he is shouted down again.
"What will you say? You tell me how you filed a case against Hindus? You think we are 'bhaade ke tattoos' (hired men who can be taken lightly) How did you file a case against Hindus?" an aggressive Mr Sharma goes on.
Police officers said this wasn't a first for the BJP leader.
Last year, Mr Sharma was caught on camera repeatedly slapping a woman trying to enter his Meerut residence and was later removed as an office bearer in the city BJP unit. But he continues to remain an influential member of the party and is often known to identify himself as a gau rakshak, or cow protector.
The Samajwadi Party said the BJP member's conduct was representative of what was happening across Uttar Pradesh.
"If a police officer wants to act in an impartial manner, he or she is being threatened. This person is a member of the BJP and the party supported him in threatening the police officer," said Juhi Singh, the party's spokesperson.