Pune/New Delhi, Feb 1 (IANS) The Indian Army and Pune police Wednesday blamed each other for the Tuesday clash between a traffic constable and two officers from the College of Military Engineering (CME).
The army also ordered an inquiry into the ‘unfortunate incident’ but blamed cops for their ‘aggressive and abusive’ behaviour that provoked the clash in the Maharashtra city.
In a statement in New Delhi, the army said Captain V. Advait and Lt. A.B. Pandit were riding a motorcycle and unwittingly got on to a bridge that was not open to two-wheelers.
A female traffic constable after stopping them at the end of the bridge asked them to pay the fine ‘to which they agreed’, the statement said.
‘With the bike parked aside, as they introduced themselves as army officers, the constable took away the keys of the bike while a second male constable started abusing Advait and manhandling him.’
The statement alleged that the male constable told the army officers that he was once roughed up for travelling without helmet in an army area, ‘he would do the same’ to them also.
It said that other police personnel reached there and the officers also informed their course-mates regarding the incident.
‘The officers’ course mates arrived and went inside the police station to the constable. Realising that the constable was still aggressive and continuously abusive, the officers also had an exchange of words with the constable,’ it said.
The statement said the officers have been debarred from leaving CME premises as the army was also in liaison with the police authorities.
Pune police, in its version, said they have registered a complaint against over 30 army personnel after two officers ‘had a verbal fight with two women constables last night as they refused to follow the rules of no-entry’.
‘Initially two young army officers attached to the College of Military Engineering (CME) got involved in an altercation with a traffic police constable when they were stopped for running into a no-entry zone,’ Deputy Commissioner of Police Dnyaneshwar Fadtare told IANS in Pune.
According to police, the two officers then left only to return with their friends who assaulted the constable. Around 30-40 personnel and officers in civil clothes had also broken the cameras of mediapersons who had rushed to the spot late Tuesday, police said.
‘Offences like using force on a policeman and breaking traffic rules have been registered against them and we are looking into it,’ Fadtare said.
