IPS officer teary eyed as BJP MLA in UP chides her

Lucknow: Bharatiya Janata Party member of legislative Assembly from Gorakhpur Radha Mohan Das Agarwal is in the news after he was caught on camera rebuking a woman Indian Police Service officer in public, leaving the latter teary-eyed. UP deputy chief minister Keshav Maurya defended Mr Agarwal, saying he was a senior leader and an elected representative must take up people’s issues.

The BJP MLA has now announced that he will stage a dharna in Gorakhpur on Wednesday in protest against sale of spurious liquor.

The IPS officer, Charu Nigam, earned the wrath of the MLA because she had removed some women who were protesting against a liquor shop at Kareeem Nagar locality.

The MLA accused the police officer of high-handedness and alleged that she had misbehaved with the protesting women.

Local BJP MLA Radha Mohan Das Aggarwal reached the spot and the protesters told him that the woman officer had forcibly removed them.

They also alleged that the police had hit a woman and dragged an 80-year-old man.

The MLA questioned the IPS officer about the action and told her that there had been orders by the state government that liquor shops will not function in densely populated residential areas.

Even as the MLA vented his ire on the police officer, the latter took out a handkerchief and wiped her tears, visuals of which were captured and telecast by news channels.

The police officer later accused the MLA of misbehaving and insulting her. “The MLA misbehaved with me and refused to acknowledge in full public view that he is speaking to a woman police officer,” she told reporters.

On the footage which shows her wiping her tears, Ms Nigam said, “I did not weep as it is not ingrained in my personality. However, I got emotional when my senior officer supported me.”

Local MLA Mr Aggarwal said there was a tacit understanding between the police and the liquor mafia as a liquor shop closed 15 days ago had suddenly started doing business again.

On Monday, the IPS officer wrote on her Facebook page: “To everyone who has turned up in my support, my training hasn’t taught me to be weak. I just did not expect that my SP city Ganesh Saha Sir would outrightly reject the irrational argument and talk about my injury. Before Sir came, I was the senior most officer in police there but when Sir came and stood by the force, I got emotional.”

“Media has taken this stand because every one of them saw both the incidents and this shows the positivity of media in Gorakhpur. I am thankful to them...”