Hundreds of Bajrang Dal activists staged a protest and waved black flags while raising slogans against a Madhya Pradesh cadre Indian Police Service (IPS) officer at Bhopal alleging the officer indulges in ‘Anti-Hindu’ activities.

The Hindu activists reached outside the Government Railway Police (GRP) Station in Bhopal on Saturday morning, expecting that the newly appointed GRP SP, Rahul Kumar Lodha, would come to take charge today. However, the officer did not reach there.

Nonetheless, the Bajrang Dal activists raised slogans and also recited a Sunder Kand Paath, as a mark of protest.

The right wing Hindu outfit is enraged with the IPS officer, mainly due to his action in a recent incident of alleged stone pelting on a Ganesh idol procession in the Mochipura area of Ratlam district. Lodha was the Ratlam SP during the incident.

He fact-checked a complaint of right- wing outfits over pelting of a stone on a Ganesh procession at Ganesh Chaturthi on 7 September night by personally visiting the spot at Mochipura area in Ratlam.

However, when Lodha led a team to the spot, more than 500 right wing activists also followed him despite being asked to go away. Clash between police and the protesters took place.

Following stone pelting, the police registered a case against around 150 persons, including about a dozen Hindu outfit leaders, the next day.

Several people credited Lodha for taking swift action and de-escalating the tension and preventing a major communal riot.

However, the right-wing organisations, Bajrang Dal and Hindu religious heads spilled onto the roads in Ratlam against police action and alleged that a member of the Hindu community had died following lathi charge by police on protesters at Mochipura.

The state government subsequently removed Lodha and transferred him as GRP SP to Bhopal after the incident.

Bajrang Dal leader Dinesh Yadav told some media persons at Bhopal that Rahul Kumar Lodha had misinformed the government over the attack on Ganesh procession by a community in Ratlam.

Yadav alleged that the police registered an FIR against Hindu community members only. Yadav also claimed that the police cane charged on the Hindus and a Hindu sustained grievous wounds and succumbed to the injuries.

“We want to warn him (Lodha) that the way he indulged in anti-Hindu activities won’t be tolerated,” Yadav averred.

“If his attitude does not change, the Bajrang Dal will carry on its protest wherever he goes to take charge of new assignments,” he declared.

“In the meantime, we request the administration and government that such an officer should be dismissed from the service,” Yadav demanded.

Rahul Kumar Lodha, an MP cadre IPS officer of 2011 batch, is expected to take charge as SP GRP Bhopal on September 18.