Kathua SSP suspends 8 cops after attack on Kerala preachers

JAMMU: Kathua SSP Mohita Sharma suspended eight cops — including a sub-inspector and seven special police officers — for negligence after a video of an alleged attack on a vehicle carrying religious preachers from Kerala went viral on social media. The clip apparently showed that police were present at the scene but failed to stop the assaulters, who accused the preachers of illegal conversion, officials said Friday.

A group of men carrying sticks had attacked the vehicle in Juthana area under Rajbagh PS in Kathua , officials said. Cops arrested one suspect and launched a search to locate the others.

Police registered an FIR under relevant sections of the law, including provisions of the Arms Act, and identified the prime accused as Ravindra Singh Thela . All attackers have several prior criminal cases registered against them. The accused claimed that the preachers had come to Kathua to convert poor people in the area.

Thela was earlier involved in an assault on a Dainik Jagran reporter, Rakesh Sharma, at Kalibari Chowk on April 24 during a protest organised by BJP’s Kathua unit to condemn the Pahalgam terror strike.