Pune: The death of three farmers in police firing in Pune has escalated into a major controversy in Maharashtra, finding echo in the state Assembly, as serious questions are raised about police excesses. For a third day today, the House was adjourned after the Opposition attacked the government.
Visuals of the police firing on Tuesday, that NDTV has accessed exclusively, are likely to fuel the furore further. These show a group of policemen in riot gear and armed with sticks, shields, helmets and service revolvers running down the Mumbai-Pune expressway where the farmers were protesting against the diversion of agricultural water away from their land.
Captured on camera is a scene where the locals are running from the police on an adjoining road. One policeman is seen firing shots at the locals as they flee. Then, a group of policemen gather around him, and throw stones at the fleeing crowd from the expressway.
The police have claimed that they resorted to firing after the protesters turned violent and hit a police inspector with a stone. And that tear gas shells and rubber bullets were used, but that these failed to quell the violence and then firing was ordered. The state has ordered a judicial inquiry into the firing.
The incident happened in Pune's Mawal Taluka on Tuesday morning. Thousands of farmers had jammed the Mumbai-Pune expressway to protest against an underground water pipe line project that will divert water from the Pawna dam to the Pimpri-Chinchwad township.
The blockade had resulted in huge traffic jams on the arterial old Mumbai-Pune Highway and the new Mumbai-Pune Expressway. "We told them to clear the road since it is an expressway. While we were negotiating with their leaders, the famers started throwing stones. They burnt down three police vans. Some of our officers are injured, especially one police inspector," Sandeep Karnik, Superintendent of Police, Pune (Rural) had claimed then.
Visuals of the police firing on Tuesday, that NDTV has accessed exclusively, are likely to fuel the furore further. These show a group of policemen in riot gear and armed with sticks, shields, helmets and service revolvers running down the Mumbai-Pune expressway where the farmers were protesting against the diversion of agricultural water away from their land.
Captured on camera is a scene where the locals are running from the police on an adjoining road. One policeman is seen firing shots at the locals as they flee. Then, a group of policemen gather around him, and throw stones at the fleeing crowd from the expressway.
The police have claimed that they resorted to firing after the protesters turned violent and hit a police inspector with a stone. And that tear gas shells and rubber bullets were used, but that these failed to quell the violence and then firing was ordered. The state has ordered a judicial inquiry into the firing.
The incident happened in Pune's Mawal Taluka on Tuesday morning. Thousands of farmers had jammed the Mumbai-Pune expressway to protest against an underground water pipe line project that will divert water from the Pawna dam to the Pimpri-Chinchwad township.
The blockade had resulted in huge traffic jams on the arterial old Mumbai-Pune Highway and the new Mumbai-Pune Expressway. "We told them to clear the road since it is an expressway. While we were negotiating with their leaders, the famers started throwing stones. They burnt down three police vans. Some of our officers are injured, especially one police inspector," Sandeep Karnik, Superintendent of Police, Pune (Rural) had claimed then.
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