Elderly woman, grandson thrashed by railway cops in station in Madhya Pradesh

Madhya Pradesh railway police personnel suspended for assaulting woman and teen grandson, sparking political controversy.

At least six personnel of the Madhya Pradesh’s Government Railway Police (GRP) were suspended on Thursday (August 29, 2024) for allegedly beating up a woman and her teen grandson inside the railway police station in Katni district as shown in a 2023 video clip on the internet. 

According to officials, the suspended personnel include a woman police station in-charge, a head constable, three constables, and a woman constable. They were identified Aruna Vahane along with head constable Ajay Srivastava and four constables Varsha Dubey, Omkar Sirsam, Soheb Abbasi, and Salman Khan.

Superintendent of Police (GRP, Jabalpur) Simala Prasad told The Hindu that the incident took place in October, 2023, when the family members of one Deepak Vanshkar, 35, — his mother Kusum Bai, 60, and his son Deepraj Vanshkar, 15, residents of Jharra Tikuriya — were summoned to the GRP station to know about Deepak’s whereabouts. 

“Deepak had been an absconder for a while and had about 20 cases of murder, theft and robbery against him, and even a reward of ₹10,000 on him. Our teams had raided his house multiple times and it was only his mother and son that we would find at his home,” she said, adding that in October the police had summoned them for questioning. 

The assault took place then and video footage of the incident went viral yesterday (Wednesday, August 29, 2024). 

“The accused personnel had been line attached [taken off field duty] last night and a probe was initiated,” Ms. Prasad said.

In the video that is now viral on the internet, multiple cops are seen hitting the teenage boy as he pleads with folded hands to a woman officer (supposedly the station in-charge) is sitting on the chair. Later, the woman officer is seen thrashing the elderly woman with rage using a baton as she falls on the ground and appears pleading.