The Arunachal Pradesh Police have launched an inquiry against soldiers of the Indian Army’s 2nd Arunachal Scouts after they allegedly vandalised the Bomdila Police station, assaulted police personnel and a civilian on November 3, reports said. Five first information reports have been lodged against the accused soldiers, The Indian Express reported.

Deputy Commissioner Sonal Swaroop and Superintendent of Police Raja Banthia told The Indian Express that a group of “inebriated soldiers” allegedly misbehaved with civilians and police personnel at the Buddha Mahotsav celebrations in Bomdila on Friday. “The station house officer went to the spot and two soldiers were brought to police station for medical examination,” Banthia said. “They were found to be intoxicated. An Army Major came to the police station and apologised. He gave a written undertaking that the men would be presented whenever required for any inquiry and took them away.”

Defence spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Harsh Wardhan Pande alleged that the police had beaten up the two soldiers in custody. “They were severely beaten up in the police lock up despite they informing them that they are from Indian Army,” Pande said. “Both the soldiers are presently admitted and are undergoing medical treatment in Mil hospital.”

The superintendent of police refuted the Army’s allegations. “Whatever force was used on the intoxicated men was because they were misbehaving with women personnel and those personnel used force in self-defence,” he said.

Banthia claimed that the Commanding Officer of the 2nd Arunachal Scouts, accompanied by the major [who visited the police station on Friday] and many soldiers, insulted the officer in-charge of the police station. “The commanding officer abused the policemen and threatened to kill the officer in-charge of the police station,” Banthia said. “He [commanding officer] was demanding that the officer in charge of the police station apologise to the battalion.”

Banthia claimed that over 100 soldiers, armed with light machine guns, vandalised the police station and vehicles. The soldiers also allegedly assaulted the deputy commissioner, who had come to the police station later, as well as Bainthia, the superintendent of police said.

The defence spokesperson, however, claimed that the commanding officer “tried to defuse the situation by having a meeting with Banthia”, but police personnel instigated the soldiers accompanying him which led to the violence. “The police has not acted in a responsible and a mature manner violating all the laid down protocols of dealing with the uniform personnel, as instead of locking up the soldiers in the police station they should have handed over the soldiers to the military authorities,” Pande said.

Meanwhile, the All Arunachal Pradesh Students’ Union condemned the violence and demanded that the state and the Centre “institute an inquiry committee and award stringent punishment to perpetrators”, The Arunachal Times reported.

Civil society organisations in West Kameng said they will stage a rally on November 5 to protest against the attack, the local newspaper reported. “It is a kind of mutiny which does not have a place in our democratic setup,” the organisations’ said. “The incident has left a bitter taste in the mind of the common masses and a fear syndrome has engulfed the whole town of Bomdila, that too during the celebration of the auspicious Buddha Mahatsova.”