Bihar police officer mistakenly lathicharged Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) Srikant Kundli Khandlekar during a clash between police and protesters at Dakbungla Square in Patna on Wednesday. The incident occurred amid a nationwide Bharat Bandh called by 21 Dalit and Adivasi organizations to protest the recent Supreme Court ruling on sub-categorization of quotas. The video of this incident has gone viral on social media.
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The tensions escalated during the demonstration as protesters clashed with Bihar Police. In an attempt to control the situation, police resorted to lathicharging and using water cannons to disperse the crowd. During the chaos, an on-duty policeman inadvertently struck SDM Khandlekar, who was also on duty, trying to pacify the protesters.
The senior police officers present quickly intervened once they recognized the SDM and stopped the lathicharge. By that time, however, Khandlekar had already been hit several times. The policeman responsible, along with a senior officer, later apologized to the SDM, explaining that the incident was a mistake.