By Our Correspondent
Hetauda, Feb. 22: Police in Makwanpur have been highly criticised over time for its use of ‘vigilantes’ in a bid to control marijuana cultivation and smuggling in the rural areas of the district.
The same vigilantes used by the police caused dispute with the locals leading to clash, fire in the air, injuries and arrests in Ward 1 of Raksirang Rural Municipality on Saturday night.
According to the locals, some police officers and three vigilantes arrived in the village on a vehicle (Baa 1 Ga 2090) at around 10 pm. The vigilantes then seized some marijuana with the support of police from the locals.
After confiscating marijuana, the vigilantes started taking cash, hen, beer and cold drinks, among others, under the name of police, leading to a dispute.
“They took marijuana and though it is illegal we allowed it, but we don’t think that police requires hen, beer and drinks taken forcefully from the public. We enquired at District Police Office, Hetauda; Area Police Office, Manahari; Area Police Office, Newarpani and Raksirang Police Station and received information that there was no team on patrolling. We suspected them to be thieves and went against them,” a local said on the condition of anonymity.
Locals informed that the police fired twice in the air while they were trying to catch the vigilantes. Later, police apologised but allowed the vigilantes to flee.
Nevertheless, the locals were angry with the behaviour of the vigilantes due to which they searched and beat them up; two vigilantes and a police officer were injured in the clash.
Police rushed the injured to the hospital but came back with a larger backup and took Kanchha Ram Rumba, ward chairman of Ward 1, to District Police Office, Makwanpur, citing the need to sign mutual agreement. “We are against Rumba’s detention while it was police who caused the clash and dispute. We demand fair justice and action against the ones who misuse their power and authority,” said Raj Kumar Malla, chairman at Raksirang Rural Municipality. Malla has left to visit Chief District Officer of Makwanpur Govinda Prasad Rijal.
Meanwhile, the District Police Office of Makwanpur has assured to take action if the police officers were found guilty.
“We received information that police officers were being kept hostage following which we rushed to the scene for support. We also recovered a sack of marijuana in abandoned state,” said Police Inspector Binod Shrestha of Area Police Office, Manahari.
There have been cases of vigilantes with whom police agree on exchanging information related with marijuana in exchange of marijuana itself. A vigilante is provided 50 per cent of the confiscated marijuana by the police for providing the information.
The locals argued that the police should not be misusing their power to suppress them and never perform their duty by being based upon personal profit.