In a horrific display of barbarism, the police here on Wednesday brutally beat women demonstrators, without sparing even the elderly ones, when they were demanding arrest of a murder accused.
Trampling all decency and humanity, the policemen showered lathi blows on the women agitators who simply looked at their assaulters in shock and dismay. The women protesters became the victims of police brutality because they could not run away after being chased by the lathi-wielding troopers.
What shocked even the passersby was a horrific scene in which a 74-year-old woman was seen assaulted black and blue by the policemen. The elderly woman, who fell flat on the road following uninterrupted blows, was seen crying for mercy. But her plight failed to move her assaulters. Finally, she was rescued by other women demonstrators. At least 25 women were injured in the incident.
“It was a vulgar display of police might. No civilised cop in the world will treat the unarmed women in such inhuman manner,” Satish Kumar Sahu, a senior journalist who was covering the incident, observed.
Incidentally, no police women were deployed to deal with the women demonstrators. “The police resorted to lathicharge to disperse the mob,” Raipur DSP Dipansu Karba said.