Police brutally drag and beat family publicly:Family visiting Singrauli Collectorate to complain faces inhumanity; Bhaskar journalist stopped from taking pictures

On Saturday, police in Singrauli brutally attacked a family that had stayed overnight at the Collectorate. A male family member, who went to complain about the Sarpanch illegally encroaching their land, was beaten in front of women and children, dragged, and forcefully pushed into a vehicle. The incident lasted about an hour, while the Collector stayed inside his office and did not intervene. When reporters from Dainik Bhaskar tried to record the scene, an ASI in plain clothes attempted to stop the camera. Spent the night in the Collectorate in hope of justice
This case is related to the family of Santram Sahu, a resident of Kasar village. According to Santram, on Friday, November 28, around 10 PM, the village sarpanch ran a JCB on his land. A wheat crop was flourishing on the land. The sarpanch was illegally building a road there. To raise a voice against this injustice, Santram set out with the women and children of his family to seek help. Santram said, weeping, ‘Since 12 o’clock at night, I have been wandering here in Baidhan (district headquarters). The village sarpanch is building a road on my land at night using a JCB machine, where my wheat crop was planted, that too has been completely destroyed.’ Family said – Collector did not even meet us
Seeing no hope of justice, this family slept overnight in the Tehsil premises with their young children. They hoped that in the morning, when the district’s highest official, the Collector, would arrive, their plea would be heard. As morning broke, the family reached the Collector’s office, but their troubles only increased instead of decreasing. Santram further said, ‘In the morning, we came to meet the Collector. The Collector arrived, but did not meet us. He is still sitting in his chamber, and while he was sitting, the police brutally picked up one of our men (Suresh Sahu). Women and children were beaten, but he has not yet come out of his chamber.’ Police crossed the limits of inhumanity
On Saturday afternoon around 2 PM, when the family was waiting for justice outside the Collector’s cabin, the atmosphere suddenly changed. Some policemen, including only one female police officer, came out from inside. They started dragging Suresh Sahu, a member of the family. When the women, children, and elderly members of the family came forward to free Suresh, the police did not spare them either. According to eyewitnesses, the police brutally pushed women and children, knocking them to the ground, and amidst screams, forcibly dragged Suresh Sahu and shoved him into the police vehicle. When the women tried to stop the vehicle, the driver reversed the car to intimidate them and quickly drove away from the scene. Women said – We fear for our lives in the village
After this incident, the entire family sat outside the Collector’s cabin and wept bitterly, but no officer paid attention to them. A woman from the family, Basmati Sahu, narrated her ordeal, saying, ‘At night, the Sarpanch and his people came to attack us. We somehow managed to escape from there to save our lives.’ ‘My small child has been left behind in the village. I don’t know what condition he must be in now. We fear for our lives, so we cannot return to the village. We somehow spent the night in the tehsil with our small children, thinking that we would get justice in the morning. But the officials were not even willing to meet us initially, and now they are treating us like this.’ FIR registered against the complainants themselves
The most shocking aspect of this case is that while this family was pleading for justice from the officials, an FIR was being registered against them at Bargawan police station. On Saturday morning at 10:46 AM, a person named Keshrilal Sahu filed a complaint. According to the FIR, ‘Yesterday, on 28/11/25 at 11 PM, I was building a road by laying gravel in Jagjivan Ram Vaishya’s field at his request with my tractor, when Santram Sahu, Satish Sahu, and Suresh Sahu came there and stood in front of my tractor. They asked me, “Why are you building a road here?” I said that Jagjivan Ram Vaishya is getting a road built in his field, you can talk to him. At this, all three blocked my way, hurled abusive language, and threatened to kill me, saying that if I built a road here, they would finish me off. Based on this FIR, the police took this action in the Collectorate premises. Police said – prohibitory section was enforced
In this matter, CSP PS Paraste said that the police took prohibitory action. He informed that in the afternoon, information was received that some people were creating a ruckus at the Collectorate. Upon this complaint, the police reached the spot. Before this, on Friday night at 11 PM, Kesari Lal Sahu had filed a complaint at Bargawan police station against three people for abuse, blocking the way, and death threats. A case was registered against Santram Sahu, Satish Sahu, and Suresh Sahu based on the complaint. However, when questioned about their attempt to stop Dainik Bhaskar’s camera, they did not provide a clear answer and stated, ‘I will look into it.’ Officials said – those creating a ruckus are encroachers
When Dainik Bhaskar spoke to officials about this entire incident, they completely rejected the family’s claims. Collector Gaurav Benal told Bhaskar over the phone, ‘The person who came to the Collectorate today had already met me on Thursday night at 8 PM. On the same day, I had the Tehsildar investigate this land dispute. ‘The investigation revealed that this complainant came with a false complaint and has himself encroached upon someone else’s land. This report has reached us. Today again, he brought women and children to create pressure. Nevertheless, we have instructed the Chitrangi SDM to visit the site once again.’