Lucknow: Samajwadi Party national president Akhilesh Yadav on Friday said Meerut Police used “third-degree” torture methods on farmer leaders and demanded a thorough probe into the alleged police brutality.Akhilesh based his allegations on the first-hand account of party leader from Amroha, Digvijay Bhati, who was allegedly left with a swollen eye following police torture for his involvement in a protest in Meerut over the murder of a Dalit girl. Akhilesh shared a photograph of Bhati with an injured eye on X. “Insulting a farmer is an insult to the country,” Akhilesh captioned the photo on X.“BJP has committed the unforgivable act of threatening farmers across the country by getting a farmer kicked in the face,” he said. The former UP CM said BJP govt in the state was subjecting farmer leaders to third-degree police torture inside police stations. He said such high-handedness reflected that BJP govt was rattled by the fear of defeat in the UP polls due early next year.Akhilesh also shared a video of Bhati in which he claimed that members of Special Operations Group (SOG) took him to an undisclosed location and tortured him for several hours. In the video, Bhati appeared with his left eye heavily swollen. Bhati said the police torture took place at the instance of SSP Avinash Pandey.Pandey was transferred out of Meerut on Thursday evening as part of a reshuffle of IPS officers. He has been attached to the DGP headquarters.Responding to Akhilesh’s accusations, ADG, Meerut Zone, Bhanu Bhaskar said allegations of misbehaviour with visitors at the office of SSP, Meerut, on Aug 19 had been taken note of. ADG ordered a probe into the allegations by DIG, Saharanpur Range, Abhishek Singh.
