A woman sub-inspector allegedly forced a Muslim woman to remove her burqa at a public meeting addressed by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath at the Reserve Police Lines ground in Ballia district on Tuesday. A video of the incident has gone viral. While District Magistrate (DM) Surendra Vikram has ordered a magisterial inquiry into the incident, Superintendent of Police (SP) Anil Kumar instructed a deputy SP to conduct a probe. Both officers denied having issued any such instruction to police personnel deployed for security at the election rally. City Magistrate Manoj Kumar has been asked to complete the inquiry in two days and submit a report, while Circle Officer of City area, Hitendra Krishna, has been directed to file the report within a week. State DGP Sulkhan Singh said he was not aware of any such incident or video. Adityanath was in Ballia to campaign for BJP candidates contesting the urban local body polls. While he was seated on the stage along with other party leaders, a video showed a woman sub-inspector (S-I), accompanied by another S-I, walking to a burqa-clad woman sitting in the crowd and pointing to her attire. The woman is first seen removing the burqa to expose her face. The S-I is then seen speaking to the woman again, after which the latter is seen removing the garment completely, under which she was wearing a sari. Two other women, seated nearby, were also seen helping the woman remove her burqa as the S-I stood close by. When contacted, the district magistrate said he came to know about the incident through newspapers. The Ballia SP said he came to know about the video through the media. “In the video, the police official is not seen using force on the woman to remove the burqa. But I have ordered an inquiry into the matter,” he added. Meanwhile, BJP’s Ballia district president Vinod Dubey, who was present on stage with Adityanath when the incident took place, said it could have been a “precautionary measure” to prevent any person from showing black flags to the chief minister.
