CRPF’s Dimple Sharma shows her wound

Bengal police and the CRPF were locked in a skirmish in Nandigram on Sunday, prompting allegations from both sides.

CRPF sources said Nandigram police station officer-in-charge Debashish Chakraborty had abused and assaulted lady constable Dimple Sharma, who came from Gujarat, when her patrol team responded to an alert that CPM cadres were terrorising villagers in Garupara.

Nandigram OC Debashish Chakraborty

But Chakraborty said CRPF personnel abused him and “beat me with a lathi”.

The CRPF denied the charge. “It was a self-inflic-ted wound. Our personnel saw Chakraborty inflict wounds on his finger with his ring,” DIG Alok Raj said.

State home secretary Asok Mohan Chakrabarti said the government would launch a probe. “It was unbecoming of CRPF men to assault a state police officer,” he said. An official said the state has raised the issue with the Centre.

Asked if the OC was assaulted after he beat a woman constable, Chakrabarti said: “We have heard about it but no confirmation reached us. A probe will reveal everything.”