Bhati alleged that SOG personnel subjected them to repeated beatings, casteist slurs and degrading treatment, and kept them in custody for close to 12 hours.
The action followed allegations by farmer leader Digvijay Bhati, president of the BR Ambedkar faction of Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) and a Samajwadi Party functionary, and his associate Mohit Jatav that senior officers and Special Operations Group (SOG) personnel assaulted them for hours after they visited the SSP’s office on Wednesday seeking removal of their names from an FIR linked to a July 8 protest. Bhati alleged that after the assault at the SSP’s office, SOG personnel took him and Jatav to an undisclosed location, subjected them to repeated beatings, casteist slurs and degrading treatment, and kept them in custody for close to 12 hours.
He named Civil Lines inspector Akhilesh Gaur as having led that phase of the alleged assault, while Jatav said the beatings left his legs swollen and affected his hearing. MEERUT: Eight more Meerut police personnel, including Civil Lines SHO, two sub-inspectors and five constables, were recalled to police lines late Friday night after SSP Avinash Pandey was attached to state headquarters in Lucknow over allegations that police tortured a farmer leader and his Dalit associate in custody. Meerut police initially denied the allegations on X and claimed Bhati and Jatav suffered their injuries in a scooter accident after leaving the police station, but deleted the post within hours.
The deletion came before the ADG ordered the fast-track inquiry and around the time authorities attached Pandey to Lucknow, deepening scrutiny of how police had handled the two men and their complaints.
The July 8 Dalit protest had already drawn intervention from Adityanath, who sent a senior minister as his emissary to Lalita Gautam’s family and assured them of justice and a fair investigation into the murder case.