Mumbai: Three days after state Home Minister Anil Deshmukh promised strict action against two policemen who roughed up a senior photojournalist who was covering the anti-CAA protest by women at Nagpada, one of the policemen was suspended while the other’s probation period was extended on Tuesday.
The action comes two days after the two, posted at Nagpda police station, were transferred in a disciplinary move to the Central Region’s control room.
Police sources said while Assistant Inspector Ghanshyam Borse was placed under suspension, the probation period of probationary Police Sub Inspector Azim Shaikh was increased for assaulting Raje. On Tuesday, an association of photojournalists and journalists had met Deshmukh, who announced the action against the police officers. Additional Commissioner of Police (Central region) Veeresh Prabhu said the suspension would be valid until an inquiry report states otherwise.
On February 6, Borse and Shaikh had assaulted senior photojournalist Ashish Raje at the protest site. Meanwhile, as the sit-in demonstration against anti-CAA women protesters at Nagpada's Morland Road, dubbed `Mumbai Bagh’, entered its sixteenth day on Tuesday, a delegation of protesters met Mumbai Police Commissioner, Sanjay Barve, and urged him to prevent police action against the protesting women. The protestors claimed that Barve assured them the police would not resort to any high-handed measures.
Meanwhile, Mumbai Congress chief Eknath Gaikwad, Communist Party of India (CPI) leader Prakash Reddy and activist Medha Patkar were among those who visited the protest site later in the day.
