New Delhi: After members of the Congress were stopped from marching to the Odisha state assembly in Bhubaneswar on Thursday (March 27), a clash ensued between the party workers and police, resulting in around 25 people sustaining injuries.The Congress workers were seeking a high-level probe into crimes against women that they alleged have increased ever since the BJP came to power in June last year, reported Press Trust of India.Those injured included 15 police personnel, most of whom were hit by stones thrown by the protesters after being stopped on the Mahatma Gandhi Marg in the heart of the city, said officials.The police baton-charged the Congressmen and used tear gas shells and water cannons to disperse the demonstrators.“Fifteen police personnel were injured in the stone pelting by the protestors. The conditions of four of them were serious. A TV journalist also sustained a head injury,” said additional commissioner of police (ACP) Narasingha Bhola.The police said that some people in the crowd also sustained injuries and are being treated at a hospital.However, the Congress alleged that the police attacked the party workers.“The police used excess force and attacked the activists while they were on the way to the assembly. There was no point in assaulting the protestors. The police could have arrested them instead,” said Odisha Congress president Bhakta Charan Das.“Many of our workers have been injured, and four of them were serious. The activists are being treated in different hospitals. We are not afraid of arrests,” added Das.
