The youths, who attempted to drown PSI Nitin Degale after an argument, have been arrested
(Anti-clockwise from top) The footage shows the cop, identified as Nitin Degale, lift a Ganesh idol for immersion. He is soon approached by four men, who following an argument, push the official into the pond, and then try to drown him
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The atrocities against police officers while discharging duties seem to be on the rise suddenly. Just a few days after traffic constable Vilas Shinde’s demise to an assault by two Khar boys, another shocking incident surfaced in Kalyan where a 38-year-old police sub-inspector was almost drowned in a pond by four youth, who he reportedly asked to move away while Ganpati immersion was underway.
Nitin Degale was posted at a local immersion pond in Tees Gaon Naka in Kalyan when according to the video, he noticed four miscreants, all wearing a similar Jarimari Mitra Mandal T-shirt and approached them to move away. He was then pushed in and one of the four attempted to drown Degale by forcing his head underwater. However, Degale managed to escape and later registered a complaint under sections 307, 353, 186, 335, 323 and 34 of the IPC and Section 7 of the criminal amendment act against the four men at the Kolsewadi police station.
Speaking to mid-day, Degale, who lives with his wife and two children in Kalyan and has been a police officer for the last 16 years, said he was given bandobast duty at the Tees Gaon Lake with other police constables. “Whatever I did was my job as a policeman to control the crowd and maintain law and order. If anything happens, I would be responsible for it, but it backfired on me this time and they tried to drown me,” said Degale.
“It was around 8.30 pm when the mandal members, playing drums near the immersion site, weren’t allowing others to carry out immersions. Other devotees were also being disturbed during aarti and they were delaying everyone else,” said Degale, adding, “So I approached them.”
Law and order
He warned them that maintaining law and order would be hard if the crowd was angered so they should let others near the pond. “Getting angry, the mandal people stopped the immersion. I then informed my senior officers about the trouble we were facing,” explains Degale.
“I was about to do the immersion as the crowd was increasing. It was then that the four youngsters pushed me in the water. One of them jumped on my back and sat on me trying to drown me. Thankfully, I managed to escape because I know swimming and was taken away by a colleague,” added Degale, who claimed that this untoward incident had scared his family.
Sources claimed that the police was unaware about the assault, but a woman police constable filmed the incident on her cellphone and circulated the video to senior officers and on social media to garner attention to the issue.
Police says
Ashitosh Dhumbre, joint commissioner of police, Thane said, “After the case was registered, teams were formed to trace the accused. All the four were arrested by Wednesday evening. Strict action will be taken against them for their actions.”
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