Rajkot:

Four policemen including 3 from the local crime branch (LCB) have been suspended with immediate effect for dereliction of duty during detention of Dhoraji congress MLA Lalit Vasoya, Savarkundala MLA Pradip Dudhat and party backed PAAS leader Hardik Patel and allowing media people to interview them in the detention vehicle during the hyped ‘Jal-samadhi’ (drowning self) programme of Vasoya to protest the alleged pollution in Bhadar river and its dam-reservoir by various Industrial units.

Some media people had entered the detention vehicle and the interviews of Vasoya, Hardik and Dudhat and even their ultimatums were streamed live.

The Sarpanch of Bhukhi village in Dhoraji taluka where the event was organized and 17 others were also detained only to be released in Jetpur a few hours later on August 11.

SP Rajkot Balram Meena, who has suspended the 4 policemen, today said that all are of head constable and constable rank and have been suspended for dereliction of duty. ‘They were assigned the duty of security of the vehicle where the detainees were kept,’ he said.

Notably, Vasoya was detained when he was coming down from the stage in the village to move towards the water body for so-called Jal Samadhi.

DeshGujarat