BJP MLA breaks police horse's leg as protest march stopped

A horse deployed as part of mounted police was injured during a protest march by the Bharatiya Janata Party to the state assembly in Dehradun, Uttarakhand, on Monday with the ruling Congress alleging that it sustained injuries after being attacked by BJP’s Mussoorie MLA Ganesh Joshi, a charge denied by the opposition party.

The incident happened during the BJP’s march against 'corruption and poor law and order' to the state assembly which was stopped at barricades put up by the Uttarakhand police near Ripsana bridge, a few metres from the state assembly premises.

Hours after the incident, two videos, one of them purportedly showing the horse’s broken hind leg and the other showing the BJP legislator from Mussoorie attacking the horse with a baton from the front, went viral sparking an allegation by Chief Minister Harish Rawat’s media in-charge Surendra Kumar that the animal had ‘fallen a victim to Joshi’s cruelty’.

BJP spokesman Munna Singh Chauhan denied the charge claiming that the horse had got injured after one of its legs got stuck in a pothole.

State BJP president Ajay Bhatt said he had not seen the videos and would not able to comment on the circumstances that may have led to injuries to the horse.

The horse was part of mounted police deployed to control the protest march called by the opposition party to protest against the state government’s alleged failure on all fronts including law and order and corruption.

Image: A screengrab taken from a video showing BJP MLA Ganesh Joshi attacking a police horse with baton in Dehradun on Monday. Photograph: ANI