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Farmer leader’s ‘torture in custody’: 8 cops sent to lines on new Meerut SSP’s order

New Meerut SSP BBGTS Murthy ordered action against eight police personnel following allegations of custodial torture by farmer leader Digvijay Bhati. The police have rejected the claims, while a probe has been ordered into the incident.

By Tertius News AI Desk 2 outlets · 2 articles Version 1 Coverage Aug 22–23, 2026 Published 2d ago

New SSP Orders Action Against Eight Police Personnel

Immediately after assuming charge on Friday evening, new Meerut senior superintendent of police (SSP) BBGTS Murthy ordered action against eight police personnel for their alleged involvement in the torture of a Bharatiya Kisan Union leader and another BKU activist in police custody on August 19, as reported by Hindustan Times.

The eight police personnel were sent to the police lines in Meerut on Saturday. They include Civil Lines inspector Akhilesh Gaur; sub-inspector Mulayam Singh; and constables Neelam, Hariom, Mukesh Kumar, Shyambabu, Sumit, and Lalit, according to the same report.

Allegations of Custodial Torture

Farmer leader Digvijay Bhati, president of Bharatiya Kisan Union (BR Ambedkar) and a Samajwadi Party leader, alleged on Friday that he was brutally assaulted and tortured by police personnel in Meerut over his involvement in a protest following the murder of a Dalit girl. Times Now reported that Bhati claimed members of the Special Operations Group (SOG) took him to an undisclosed location, where he was allegedly assaulted and tortured for several hours. He alleged that the action was carried out on the directions of then Meerut SSP Avinash Pandey.

According to Hindustan Times, Bhati further alleged that after the assault at the SSP’s office, Civil Lines inspector Akhilesh Gaur was handed responsibility for dealing with him and Mohit Jatav. “He took us to the SOG office at the Police Lines where we were subjected to brutality. Whenever we became unconscious, they would revive us and beat us again,” Bhati was quoted as saying. Bhati, who had one of his injured eyes covered with a bandage, also alleged that the then SSP used abusive language against him and Jatav, as per Times Now.

Bhati claimed police had arrested 8-10 people in connection with a protest related to the Lalita Gautam murder case, and that he and Jatav did not participate. Mohit Jataak accused the then SSP of planning to eliminate him and Bhati in a staged encounter, as reported by Hindustan Times.

Police Response and Government Action

Meerut police have rejected the allegations of custodial torture. They claimed that Bhati and Jatav were already facing several criminal cases and were history-sheeters. The police claimed that the two sustained injuries after their scooter skidded while they were returning home, according to Hindustan Times.

Police stated that Bhati and Jatav are history-sheeters; Digvijay Bhati, son of Raghuraj Singh of Chaisand, resident of Chamarwa, Sambhal, and Mohit Jataak, son of Suresh Singh of Kinanagar, Meerut. Police said five cases each are registered against Digvijay Bhati in Meerut and Amroha and seven cases against Mohit Jataav in Meerut, as per the same report.

Separately, the state government transferred nine IPS officers, including Avinash Pandey, late Thursday night; Pandey was attached to the Lucknow police headquarters. Times Now also reported that Pandey was transferred on Saturday night and attached to the police headquarters.

Probe Ordered

Following Bhati’s allegations, ADG Meerut Zone Bhanu Bhaskar ordered a probe into the matter. DIG Saharanpur Abhishek Singh has been tasked with investigating the allegations. The probe will look into Bhati’s claims of assault and alleged police brutality, according to both Hindustan Times and Times Now.

Bhanu Bhaskar has said that the allegations will be investigated and appropriate action will be taken based on the findings, as reported by Times Now.

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav also raised allegations of caste-based targeting in the incident. He said, “see what happened in Meerut. He was targeted based on his caste, saying he is from the Gurjar community. He was thrashed just because he was from PDA,” according to Times Now.

How each outlet told it

Hindustan Times as of Aug 22, 2026, 5:46 PM UTC

Framing: Emphasizes the new SSP's order to send eight cops to police lines over torture allegations, highlighting the administrative response. — Neutral/factual, with descriptive language: 'levelled allegations', 'claimed', 'alleged' without overt judgment.

Facts Included:

New Meerut SSP BBGTS Murthy ordered action against eight police personnel for alleged involvement in torture of BKU leader and activist on August 19.
Eight police personnel sent to police lines on Saturday, including Civil Lines inspector Akhilesh Gaur, S-I Mulayam Singh, and constables Neelam, Hariom, Mukesh Kumar, Shyambabu, Sumit, Lalit.
ADG Meerut zone Bhanu Bhaskar ordered probe into custodial torture allegations against former SSP Avinash Pandey; Saharanpur DIG Abhishek Singh assigned investigation.
Farmer leader Digvijay Bhati, president of BKU (BR Ambedkar), alleged assault by SSP Avinash Pandey and other police personnel.
Bhati had injured eye covered with bandage; alleged he and Mohit Jatav were taken to SOG office at Police Lines and beaten repeatedly.
Meerut police rejected allegations, claimed Bhati and Jatav were history-sheeters and sustained injuries when scooter skidded.
State government transferred nine IPS officers, including Avinash Pandey, late Thursday night; Pandey attached to Lucknow police headquarters.
Bhati claimed police arrested 8-10 people in protest over Lalita Gautam murder case; he and Jatav did not participate and went to meet SSP to present their side.
Mohit Jatav accused then SSP of planning to eliminate them in a staged encounter.
Police said Bhati, son of Raghuraj Singh of Chamarwa, Sambhal, and Jatav, son of Suresh Singh of Kinanagar, Meerut, are history-sheeters.
Police said five cases each against Bhati in Meerut and Amroha; seven cases against Jatav in Meerut.

Read the source article →

Times Now as of Aug 23, 2026, 12:19 PM UTC

Framing: Emphasizes the SP leader's allegation of torture for hours and the probe ordered, highlighting the political angle and the accusation. — Sympathetic toward Bhati, using words like 'brutally assaulted' and 'tortured for several hours' without presenting police's rebuttal in the lead. Descriptive and supportive of the allegations.

Facts Included:

SP leader Digvijay Bhati alleged on Friday that he was brutally assaulted and tortured by police in Meerut over his involvement in a protest following the murder of a Dalit girl.
Bhati claimed SOG members took him to an undisclosed location, where he was assaulted and tortured for several hours.
Bhati alleged action was carried out on directions of Meerut SSP Avinash Pandey.
SSP Avinash Pandey was transferred on Saturday night and attached to police headquarters.
SP chief Akhilesh Yadav raised allegations of caste-based targeting, saying Bhati was from Gurjar community and thrashed because he was from PDA.
ADG Meerut Zone Bhanu Bhaskar ordered a probe; DIG Saharanpur tasked with investigating.
Bhanu Bhaskar said allegations will be investigated and appropriate action taken.
Probe will look into Bhati's claims of assault and alleged police brutality.

Read the source article →

What was claimed, and who backed it

Each row is one claim, attributed to the outlet whose wording states it most clearly. Confidence rates how directly the source text states the claim — explicit and unhedged rates high; hedged, pieced-together, or internally inconsistent statements rate lower. It does not measure whether the claim is true. Status counts the distinct outlets we found asserting it — so a single-source claim can still show high confidence, and a multi-source claim can show medium. Every one of those outlets is named beside the status, so you can check the count against the list. For claims extracted before we began storing that list, the row says so: it names the outlet the claim is quoted from and states that we have not recorded which outlets backed it. Outlets wrote at different times, so a figure that evolves — a casualty count, for example — can legitimately differ between rows; check the "as of" time next to each claim's source.

Claim	Confidence	Status
ClaimNew Meerut SSP BBGTS Murthy ordered action against eight police personnel for alleged involvement in torture of a BKU leader and activist on August 19.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusSingle-source via Hindustan Times as of Aug 22, 2026, 5:46 PM UTC
ClaimEight police personnel were sent to police lines on Saturday, including Civil Lines inspector Akhilesh Gaur, S-I Mulayam Singh, and constables Neelam, Hariom, Mukesh Kumar, Shyambabu, Sumit, and Lalit.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusSingle-source via Hindustan Times as of Aug 22, 2026, 5:46 PM UTC
ClaimADG Meerut zone Bhanu Bhaskar ordered a probe into custodial torture allegations against former SSP Avinash Pandey; DIG Saharanpur Abhishek Singh was assigned the investigation.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusMulti-source (2 outlets) via Hindustan Times as of Aug 22, 2026, 5:46 PM UTC, Times Now as of Aug 23, 2026, 12:19 PM UTC
ClaimDigvijay Bhati, president of Bharatiya Kisan Union (BR Ambedkar) and Samajwadi Party leader, alleged he was assaulted by SSP Avinash Pandey and other police personnel.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusSingle-source via Hindustan Times as of Aug 22, 2026, 5:46 PM UTC
ClaimBhati alleged that after being assaulted, Civil Lines inspector Akhilesh Gaur took him and Mohit Jatav to the SOG office at the Police Lines, where they were beaten repeatedly.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusSingle-source via Hindustan Times as of Aug 22, 2026, 5:46 PM UTC
ClaimThe police rejected the custodial torture allegations and claimed that Bhati and Jatav were history-sheeters and sustained injuries when their scooter skidded.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusContested via Hindustan Times as of Aug 22, 2026, 5:46 PM UTC
ClaimThe state government transferred nine IPS officers, including Avinash Pandey, late Thursday night; Pandey was attached to the Lucknow police headquarters.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusSingle-source via Hindustan Times as of Aug 22, 2026, 5:46 PM UTC
ClaimBhati claimed police had arrested 8-10 people in connection with a protest related to the Lalita Gautam murder case, and that he and Jatav did not participate.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusSingle-source via Hindustan Times as of Aug 22, 2026, 5:46 PM UTC
ClaimMohit Jataak accused the then SSP of planning to eliminate him and Bhati in a staged encounter.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusSingle-source via Hindustan Times as of Aug 22, 2026, 5:46 PM UTC
ClaimPolice stated that Bhati and Jatav are history-sheeters; Digvijay Bhati son of Raghuraj Singh of Chaisand resident of Chamarwa, Sambhal, and Mohit Jataak son of Suresh Singh of Kinanagar, Meerut.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusSingle-source via Hindustan Times as of Aug 22, 2026, 5:46 PM UTC
ClaimPolice said five cases each are registered against Digvijay Bhati in Meerut and Amreli and seven cases against Mohit Jataav in Meerut.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusSingle-source via Hindustan Times as of Aug 22, 2026, 5:46 PM UTC
ClaimBhati alleged that the then SSP used abusive language against him and Jatavi.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusSingle-source via Hindustan Times as of Aug 22, 2026, 5:46 PM UTC

Transparency & Audit Trail

2 outlets · 2 articles consulted: Hindustan Times, Times Now 12 claims extracted Version 1 Written 2026-08-23