Wednesday morning, the entire country witnessed a case of harassment when the video of District Magistrate of Tripura, Mr. Shailesh Kumar Yadav went viral in which he was allegedly high-handing while trying to enforce night curfew in the state capital Agartala.
In the video, Mr. Yadav can be seen hitting a priest and groom and ordering the arrest of guests present for violating prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the CrPC. He can also be heard telling the cops accompanying him to seal the popular Manikya Court and Gulab Bagan banquet halls for a year as well as recommending suspension of the officer-in-charge of the West Agartala police station.
The family of the bride whose wedding was stopped by the DM over alleged violation of the 10 pm night curfew in Tripura has accused the officer of “harassment” and “ill behavior”.
The mother of the bride told ThePrint, “The local police have been kind and helpful but we are really mentally torn after the DM’s misbehavior,” she said. “He pushed around and hit people. We will never forget the torture we have been subjected to. Never had we imagined that one of the happiest days of our life will take this bizarre turn.”
The Chief Minister of Tripura, Mr. Biplab Kumar Deb has asked the Chief Secretary of the state, Mr. Manoj Kumar to submit a report on the DM’s conduct.
However, after facing major backlash the District Magistrate apologized for his behavior stating, “I apologize if any individual or group is pained by last night’s action, but what was done last night was only for the benefit and well-being of people. My aim was not to pain or humiliate anyone.”
Angered by the incident, five MLAs from BJP wrote a letter to Chief Secretary Manoj Kumar, demanding immediate action against the DM.
In their letter titled ‘state terrorism and height of boorish misbehavior of the DM’, the MLAs have alleged that Shailesh Kumar Yadav not only “physically assaulted” the bride and the groom at a wedding venue he raided but also “pushed out” the priest and “abused” the attendees.
“Shailesh Yadav physically assaulted the bride and the groom physically pushed out the elderly priest and also jostled all elderly people using vile abuses.” He also openly abused the police personnel, manhandled police in uniform, and declared that he would have the office in charge of West Agartala police station suspended…Even the women present on the occasion were not spared from misbehavior,” the letter reads.
According to reports, after the intervention of the Chief Minister and a letter from the MLAs, Mr. Yadav has been suspended from his post.
After the incident went viral, Tripura West DM was among the top trends on Twitter India. Both the hashtags #Tripura DM and #The DM featured in the top-10 list on the micro-blogging site from very early in the morning. The incident’s video set the social media on fire with a few Twitterati lauding the strict action taken by him in these times of the COVID-19 pandemic, while most others sought his dismissal for what they described as a ‘Rambo Act’.
