After young officers (YOs) studying at the College of Military Engineering (CME) here allegedly clashed with the traffic police and mediapersons on Tuesday night, the Pune police registered a complaint against three YOs and their accomplices on Wednesday.
According to the police, Captain Advait B, Lieutenant H.B. Pandit, Arjun Sood, and 30-40 of their colleagues have been booked for dacoity, voluntarily causing hurt, deliberate insult with intent to provoke breach of peace and criminal intimidation. They have also been booked for rioting and indulging in assault or criminal force to deter a public servant from discharging duty.
The trouble started when two officers attached to the CME, riding a motorbike, were stopped by a traffic constable at the Sambhaji Bridge for running into a no-entry zone. According to the police, the officer then called his friends from the CME and assaulted the policemen at the nearby outpost. The officers, who were in civil clothes, also broke cameras of mediapersons who rushed to the spot.
A complaint has been registered by a photographer of a Marathi television channel against the officers.
The Sambhajinagar police station was also vandalised by the officers, the police alleged.
The Army has ordered a Court of Inquiry and the officers have been debarred from leaving the CME premises.
However, the college claims that the scuffle began after a traffic constable started abusing Capt. Advait, roughing him up and manhandling him.
In a statement, it claimed that when other police personnel started converging on the location, the officers informed their course-mates of the incident. “Senior instructors were also informed of the incident. The officers' coursemates went inside the police station to meet the constable. Realising that the constable was still aggressive and continuously abusive, the officers also had an exchange of words with him. Senior Police Officers reached the spot and later the Military Police also arrived. Four of the instructors took control of the situation,” the statement said.
Referring to the officers heckling mediapersons, the statement said, “The media was trying to get info and clicking photos which were objected to by the officers.”
