SHILLONG: The Hynniewtrep Youth Council (HYC) has demanded an unconditional apology from Yangchen D Bhutia, an IPS officer posted in Sohra PS, for allegedly labeling the people of Sohra as ‘backward’ and ‘drunkards’.
“We feel deeply insulted by the remarks of the senior police officer,” HYC president Shan Nongrum said in a statement on Monday.
He said it was unbecoming of a police officer to term the whole community as ‘drunkards’ and ‘backward’.
“We will not accept any negative remark which is demeaning to the whole community. We expect officers coming to serve in the State to show some respect to the local people,” Nongrum said.
The comment was made by Bhutia on April 13 when a group of HYC members had gone to the police station to response to the summon notice issued by this police officer.
According to the HYC president, Bhutia had served a summon notice to the HYC asking them to appear before her on April 11 based on reports that they had driven away non-tribal labourers working in Sohra without the knowledge of the police.
The HYC members responded to the summon three days later and expressed their desire to communicate in the local language to ‘express themselves better’, Nongrum said, adding that there were many Khasi police officials present there to do the translation work.
“The officer in charge (Bhutia) got irritated and started calling us illiterate and drunken,” Nongrum added.
The HYC chief, meanwhile, denied their involvement in any anti-infiltration drive and said, “If we had done it we would have handed over the labourers to the police. We have conducted such drives in the past and whenever we have found any anomaly in the work permit issued to the labourers we have handed them over to the police,” Nongrum said.
Meanwhile, questions are being raised on why an officer of the rank of IPS, was serving as the officer in-charge of a police station. Also surprising is the fact that the summon notice issued by the IPS officer to the HYC was without proper seal and had not been handwritten.
When contacted, East Khasi Hills Superintendent of Police M. Kharkrang informed that Yangchen D Bhutia was a 2012 batch IPS officer from Sikkim, and had been posted at Sohra PS under probation.
