It’s a day woman constable Pramila Padhi won’t be able to erase from memory even if Congress leader “Jagdish Tytler apologises profusely”.
Three days after she was chased and overpowered by a mob of Congressmen on the road leading to Orissa Assembly during the Parivartan Samavesh of Orissa Pradesh Congress Committee, Padhi (39) breaks into cold sweat when she remembers the moment. Doctors have declared her to be out of danger. Padhi is still nursing a broken left arm and a finger on her right hand. She remains bedridden at a private hospital here. Her husband said she was traumatised by the September 6 assault.
“The apology (by Tytler) does not mean anything to me. I hope those who assaulted me are punished. What I have gone through I will never be able to describe. We were standing near the barricade close to the dais when Tytler started exhorting the crowd to break the barricade. He told the crowd, “We are being kept in shackles. Have you come to listen my speech only? Tod do (break the barricade).” That is when we were rained with stones and green coconuts,” said Padhi.
As Padhi was running away from the mob, her helmet slipped and someone pulled her leg. “After I fell, I was trying to save myself when someone kicked me. All along I was trying to save my head. Then I passed out,” said Padhi, struggling for words. Though she feared the worst, doctors ruled her to be out of danger after CT scans on her head. On behalf of Padhi, an FIR was lodged in Capital police station on September 7 against Tytler, PCC chief Niranjan Patnaik, several other Congress leaders and unnamed mob who assaulted her.
“Even an animal is treated better way. The way my wife was assaulted I can’t imagine what kind of people were part of the mob,” said her husband Giridhar Panda, an employee of a private college in city. The couple have a 10-year-old son.
Panda added, “She can’t go to toilet without the help of two people. She has been refusing solid food since last three days as she fears going to toilet. I am praying that she heals fast,” he said.
The condition of Nayapalli PS inspector Anup Kanungo, who was hit on his head, improved a little. But doctors have said that Kanungo will be bedridden for at least three months.
Bhubaneswar DCP Nitinjeet Singh said they were caught unawares by the mob as they were assured by senior Congress leaders that it would be ‘peaceful’ rally. “We were tricked as we thought that there would be no violence when the PCC president is there. But now we are planning to arrest a lot of people after checking the footage of CCTVs and local TV channels,” he said.
So far, eight cases have been lodged against Tytler, OPCC chief Niranjan Patnaik and other Congress leaders on charges of instigating the mob. Singh said for Monday’s bandh call by the Congress, massive arrangements have been made for security.
Source: Times of India
