A 28-year-old CRPF jawan alleged that he was "assaulted" and "handcuffed" by policemen in Pune on Sunday without any provocation when he went to invite them for a condolence meet for the 40 CRPF soldiers who were killed in the Pulwama terror attack.
A senior police officer denied the allegations by the jawan, Ashok Ingawale, a resident of Songaon village, who is currently on leave. The officer said it was Mr Ingawale who got into a brawl with the policemen.
The incident took place at Pune's Baramati rural police station.
Mr Ingawale, who claims to be posted in Jammu and Kashmir, said he was part of a small "mandal" in his village and it was decided to hold a condolence meeting for the CRPF soldiers during a Shiv Jayanti programme on Tuesday.
"On Sunday afternoon, I, along with my cousin, who recently retired from the Army, and one more youth, went to invite the senior officers of the Baramati police station for the February 19 programme," he said. "However, we were stopped by a couple of police personnel who used intimidating and arrogant language," he added.
Mr Ingawale, who went to the police station with the other two on a two-wheeler and in his uniform, said he showed his identity card to the police personnel and offered to pay the fine for triple riding, but they did not listen to him.
"They further alleged I was drunk. The police personnel then took me to a room where there was no CCTV camera. There I was beaten up by 10 to 15 police personnel, my uniform was torn and I was handcuffed," he alleged, adding that the policemen even abused him.
Senior police officer Sandip Pakhale denied Mr Ingawale's allegations. He said Mr Ingawale indulged in triple riding and when the personnel at the police station stopped him, he started using intimidating language.
"When he was taken inside the police station, he got into a brawl with the policemen and damaged chairs," Mr Pakhale said.
He said Mr Ingawale himself went into the lock-up to show that he had been arrested. "We have CCTV footage which shows he himself tore his clothes," he said. "Nevertheless, we are trying to find out what exactly happened," said Mr Pakhale.
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