Madhopur Bazaar traders keep shutters down against police atrocity

Alok Mishra

Gopalganj: Public outcry against police atrocities was witnessed in Madhopur Bazaar locality under Madhopur police outpost on January  26 afternoon when the locals clashed with policemen. Traders downed shutters of their shops in panic. A large number of people assembled in the market and blocked Madhopur-Barhariya main road placing burning tyres at different places till late in the night.

The cops had to retreat sensing the gravity of the situation. On getting information, SDPO Manoj Kumar along with  reinforcement from different police stations reached there.The anger was also witnessed on Friday also as most of the shops kept their shutters down while police was carrying out intensive patrolling in the locality. Senior police officials  remained tightlipped over the issue. The locals alleged that police were extorting money from them in the name of checking vehicles. They alleged that despite showing documents of the vehicles, the cops were collecting money from them.

The locals said that the anger exploded when some cops beat up a shopkeeper Mahanth Chourasiya on January 26. A group of eunuchs passing through the area also protested police atrocities. It may be mentioned here that the villagers had created a scene at Jadopur a few days back when the local SHO had allegedly roughed up a fisherman when he refused to chop fishes.