A group of civic volunteers in Cooch Behar resorted to a sit-in demonstration in front of a police station on Tuesday, alleging that a sub-inspector assaulted one of them without any provocation.

Senior police officers denied the charge and said the concerned person was intoxicated while doing his duty.

At around 9am, the civic volunteers assembled in front of the Pundibari police station. They launched the demonstration, alleging that a police officer posted at the police station had assaulted Santosh Das, a civic volunteer, on Monday.

“He beat me up without any provocation. Also, he managed to get a fake medical report from a local health centre to implicate me with the false charge that I was drunk while on duty. We want appropriate intervention of senior officers,” said Das.

The demonstration continued till 3pm and caught the attention of many curious onlookers.

Dyutiman Bhattacharya, the superintendent of police of Cooch Behar, however, denied the charge.

The additional superintendent of police (headquarters) conducted an inquiry in connection with the incident.

“It was found that the concerned civic volunteer was intoxicated while being on duty. His medical examination was conducted at night and disciplinary action would be taken against him for insubordination and agitation, which is not allowed in the department,” said Bhattacharya.

“Information was also gathered from the officers and other personnel and the CCTV footage of the police station was also analysed,” he added.