Ujjain: Guards at Mahakal temple ‘thrash’ Mumbai-based devotees

Ujjain (Madhya Pradesh): Private security guards of KSS company deployed at the Mahakaleshwar temple premises allegedly misbehaved and thrashed devotees who were part of a 23-member group from Mumbai visiting the temple on Sunday. Sanjay Mishra and Nitin Pathak, residents of Mumbai, said that in the morning they had come by train with a group of 23 people to pay obeisance to Mahakaleshwar Jyotirlingam. Joining the queue of general visitors, all of them reached the palanquin hall where the security personnel suddenly closed one queue line and asked to join the other one. “When we stopped there and waited for the other queue line to open, the security personnel standing there asked us to move away but allowed others to proceed.

When we protested, they started fighting while abusing us,” the Mumbai youths said. By the time Sanjay came to Nitin’s rescue, other security personnel – numbering around 10 – gathered and dragged Sanjay to the other side where he was allegedly beaten up and thrown on the ground. Our clothes were torn and spectacles were also broken, the devotees from Mumbai claimed. Guru Hemant Shinde of the Mahalaxmi temple, Mumbai, who was also accompanying them said that when the security personnel were manhandling Sanjay and Nitin, a situation like stampede occurred there. “I was pleading not to indulge in such fighting but the security personnel were not ready to listen to anyone.

When I went to rescue, they dragged me, thrashed and threw the barricade on me, causing serious injuries to my hands,” he said. The injured devotees reached Mahakal police station, where the in-charge and supervisor of the security company were called by the police. They were made to sit in the police station to identify the employees who had assaulted them. The security guards incharge said that appropriate action will be taken against guards if they are found at fault.