A Dalit police constable in former Jharkhand minister Krishna Nand Tripathi’s personal security detail has accused the Congress leader of slapping him and passing casteist slurs after he got stuck in a traffic jam.
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A zero FIR has been registered at Nagar police station in Daltonganj and will be transferred to Latehar for investigation. According to the police, the alleged incident occurred at 1:30 pm when the former minister’s car was passing through Latehar.
The complainant, constable Ravindra Rikhiyashan, was allegedly asked to get off and clear the road.
Jyoti Lal Rajwar, the officer-in-charge of Daltonganj Town police station, said that sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, have been invoked.
Rikhiyashan told The Indian Express that there were traffic jams because of the Karam festival.
“As we tried to manage the situation, Neta ji arrived and began hurling abuses,” he alleged, adding that he was called an “adivasi” and a “harijan” and told that he was unfit for the job. He also alleged Tripathi slapped him.
Tripathi, a former minister of Rural Development, Labour, Employment & Training, and Panchayati Raj, denied the assault allegations, claiming that the FIR against him was filed “out of revenge”
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“I only asked my bodyguards to be more alert, got the passage cleared, and then left for the Circuit House. I did not assault or abuse anyone. Everything is visible in the CCTV,” he said. “When they (the body guards) refused to move the vehicle, and I managed to get it cleared within a minute, they felt insulted. That is why they registered the FIR.”
The Latehar Police Men’s Association condemned the alleged incident, calling it an attack on the dignity of uniformed personnel in a letter to the state Director General of Police.
“If a leader feels a bodyguard is unfit, he must report it to senior officers, not assault him. The CCTV footage has clear evidence of the incident,” the association’s president, Karan Singh, wrote.
