If the dent in their image due to the recent crime spurt in the city wasn’t enough, Lucknow police was today left red-faced over a clash between an officer of the rank of Superintendent of Police and a sub-inspector at the Kaiserbagh police station. As the two attacked each other with reportedly fists and then belts, the situation would have spun out of control but for Circle Officer Attar Singh Yadav. He intervened and pulled Sub-Inspector Shobha Ram Mishra attached to the Wazirganj police station into his room.However, with Mishra going to the press alleging that SP (West) Sushil Chandra Bajpai had abused him and hit him with a belt, and murmurs of protest growing among Lucknow police subordinate staff including sub-inspectors and darogas over the incident, the clash may not die a quiet death.Lucknow SSP Kamal Saksena told The Indian Express that Mishra’s conduct had been taken seriously. ‘‘It was unbecoming on his part and it amounted to a breach of conduct,’’ Saksena said, adding that Mishra had a track record of creating unruly scenes. ‘‘Instead of rushing to the press, he should have approached me.”The clash between the two erupted after Mishra was pulled up by the SP (West) attached to the Kaiserbagh PS for misbehaving with the Inspector of Wazirganj police station, Suraj Pal. Bajpai had summoned the S-I on Pal’s complaint.
