Bhubaneswar, Sept. 26: Governor M.C. Bhandare today asked the state government to institute a probe by the Lokpal into the alleged police excess on Congress workers at the party’s rally here on September 6.

Confirming the development, Raj Bhavan sources said: “The governor is exercising the powers conferred on him by the Constitution. He has directed the state government to hold a probe by the Lokpal and submit a report on the issue.”

An official said under the Odisha Lokpal and Lokayukta Act, 1995, the governor had the authority to direct the government to get an inquiry conducted by the Lokpal on any issue he deems fit.

On September 16, an eight-member delegation led by Pradesh Congress Committee president Niranjan Patnaik had called on the governor and urged him to direct the Lokpal to inquire into alleged police excesses on the party workers during the rally.

The Congress had alleged that police led by deputy commissioner of police (DCP) Nitinjeet Singh had “assaulted Congress workers like beasts and even passed obscene remarks against them”.

Around 400 people, including 60 cops, sustained injuries when Congress workers fought a pitched battle with the men in khaki, who used water cannons, tear gas shells and lathis near the Assembly on September 6.

The violence erupted when the Congress workers tried to break the police cordon and gherao the Assembly as part of the party’s “Naveen hatao and Odisha banchao” rally here.

Among the inured were Congress state chief Niranajan Patnaik, former MP Soumya Ranjan Patnaik and All India Congress Committee secretary Mirza Irshad Baig.

Pictures of woman constable Pramila Padhi being beaten up by Congress activists had attracted criticism.

Chairperson of the State Women Commission Jyoti Panigrahi and National Commission for Women Charu Wali Khanna had visited the injured woman constable. The National Human Rights Commission, too, had taken up the matter.