A police officer of Ashok Nagar police station was suspended on Thursday night for allegedly wielding the stick on a group of people, including women, when they had staged a road blockade to protest the denial of vaccination despite having scheduled appointments through Cowin app.

A departmental inquiry has also been ordered against the suspended assistant sub-inspector of police Madhusudan Tarafdar.

Trouble broke out at a primary health centre run by the Ashoknagar-Kalyangarh civic authority in ward 18 on Thursday afternoon when people who had gathered to receive the jab after registering on the Cowin app were denied the jab.

The health centre authorities claimed that Cowin-registered people wouldn’t be vaccinated since they didn’t have any data about them. The authorities in turn insisted that unregistered persons would be vaccinated using the stock available.

“The health centre authorities expressed their inability to vaccinate us since they had no record of our registration. They apparently ignored the Cowin registration. This prompted the registered people to begin a demonstration by blocking the road in front of the health centre,” a person who had turned up for vaccination said.

However, soon the protest turned violent and a truck was attacked. This prompted police to lathicharge the protesters to remove the blockade.

“The police officer did not spare elderly women, girls and beat us up as if we were criminals,” said a local resident.

As videos of the police assault on protesters went viral, an inquiry was ordered by SDO Barasat Soma Sau, apparently on direction from the state government.

The local civic authority also held an immediate meeting and filed a report with the district administration. “After preliminary inquiry, the officer has been suspended by the Barasat police district and a probe ordered into the matter,” a senior police officer of Barasat police district said.

An official of the civic administration acknowledged that the confusion was caused by a mistake committed by health centre officials.

“They should have checked the Cowin registration list and arranged vaccination for the beneficiaries. There was a lack of coordination on their part. At the same time, the lathicharge was absolutely uncalled for,” the official said.