MP Congress forms panel to probe Guna Dalit couple beating case

Bhopal: Opposition Congress in the BJP- ruled Madhya Pradesh on Thursday formed a seven-member committee to probe the alleged beating of a Dalit couple in Guna town of the state by the police, a party leader said.

State Congress president Kamal Nath constituted this panel to investigate the incident, Nath's media coordinator, Narendra Singh Saluja said.

"The panel comprises state Congress working presidents Ramniwas Rawat and Surendra Choudhary, former ministers Bala Bachchan and Jaivardhan Singh, MLA Dr Hiralal Alawa, former MLA Phool Singh Barraiya and state Congress spokesman and former Bhopal mayor Vibha Patel," he said.

Officials had said that the Dalit couple, who were being removed from a plot of government land allotted for a college in Guna city, protested and drank pesticide on Tuesday.

The couple had also refused to go to a hospital so the police had to use force to take them to hospital, the district collector had claimed on Wednesday.

Congress condemned the use of force against the Dalit couple and demanded action against those responsible for the incident.

"A Dalit couple was mercilessly beaten up by the cops.

What kind of jungle raj is this?" former chief minister Kamal Nath said in a tweet.

"If it was related to government land, it (the issue) can be legally resolved. But beating him, his wife and a kid are not justified.

Stern action should be taken against those responsible for it," the former chief minister said.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi also condemned the incident.

Sharing on Twitter a purported video of the incident that showed the police hitting a Dalit man mercilessly with batons and his wife and others trying to save him, Gandhi said, "Our fight is against this mindset and injustice".

Taking serious cognizance of the incident, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had on Wednesday night removed Guna collector and superintendent of police.

Home Minister Narottam Mishra had said that the chief minister also ordered a high-level probe into the incident.