Cop alleges assault, MLA pressure over ‘illegal’ mining; suspended for ‘misconduct’

The Congress party has attacked the Rajasthan Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government after a policeman claimed that he was assaulted and suspended for taking action against the gravel mafia at the behest of the local BJP MLA. This comes as the administration claimed that he was suspended over assault and for waving a pistol outside a hospital.

In a video on social media, Head Constable Rajesh Meena, who was posted at Ajmer’s Kekri Sadar police station, said that the Station House Officer of the police station informed him that one person had died during illegal mining and instructed him to reach the spot immediately. Meena said that he reached the spot and briefed the SHO about the incident, including the presence of four tractors and two JCB machines.

The SHO, he alleged, reached the spot only three hours later, “but once he reached, he told me to free (the seized vehicles). I told him I can’t free them as my video has gone viral and I don’t allow illegal mining. I said you may be taking money (as a bribe) but I don’t”.

Meena said that he then brought the impounded vehicles to the police station, but the local BJP MLA, Shatrughan Gautam, pressured him and threatened that he would get him fired.

“I received around 20 calls from the MLA and his persons,” Meena said. He claimed that when he stepped out of the police station to meet his relative, around 15–20 persons waylaid him and assaulted him. “I sustained injuries on my hands and my head, and then I was suspended too,” Meena said, adding that “this is the humiliation of the police”.

The phones of both Meena and the MLA, Shatrughan Gautam, were switched off and they could not be reached for comment.

However, Ajmer Deputy SP Harshit Sharma said that on the night of January 5, Meena “got drunk and assaulted and abused some private persons outside a hospital here”.

“He also damaged their vehicle. Based on the complaint by the victim, the SP suspended him,” he said.

On the alleged illegal mining, Sharma claimed that verification by the mining department showed the mining was legal.

“The seized vehicles were kept at the police station and the next day, the Mines Department verified the claims and found that the mining was being undertaken in the leased area and wrote to the police station to release the vehicles,” Sharma said. On the person’s death, Sharma said it was accidental.

Meanwhile, taking to X, former Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said: “In the state, the bajri (gravel) mafia is running amok, and the BJP government continues to act as their protector. Even more shameful is the fact that a policeman from Kekri police station, Shri Rajesh Meena, has made a video stating that he was stopped and threatened by the local BJP MLA from taking action against illegal mining.”

He went on to claim that under BJP rule, “dictatorship is being imposed on policemen so that the mafia can get a free hand”.

“In the Kekri assembly constituency, the gravel mafia has taken the lives of four people in the last two years. Chief Minister ji, take immediate cognisance of this matter and take strict action against the guilty mafias and the public representatives providing them protection,” Gehlot claimed.

Congress state president Govind Singh Dotasra too said that Meena “was brutally beaten for stopping illegal mining, and as a reward from the department, he received a suspension… because he dared to take action against illegal mining being carried out under the patronage of BJP leaders”.

“This is not just an attack on one police officer; it is a direct assault on the rule of law. Criminals are being protected through the collusion of BJP leaders and senior police officers, while police personnel who perform their duty are being harassed and humiliated,” Dotasra said, adding: “The police uniform is being trampled upon, and the government sits silently as a mute spectator. Has the BJP government completely surrendered to illegal mining?”