Aurangabad: The Aurangabad police’s move to retreat in the face of a raging mob on the bridge at Kaigaon Toka on Tuesday is being dubbed as a “strategic move” to prevent loss of life. A video of the incident has gone viral.On Tuesday, about 3,000-4,000 youths reached the Kaigaon Toka bridge over Godavari river to express their support to those on a sit-in agitation at the spot. A day earlier, Kakasaheb Shinde, a farmer from Kanadgaon in Gangapur tehsil, was washed away in the Godavari waters after he jumped into the river.The youths, who were on the bridge, targeted a fire ambulance by turning it turtle and later torched it. Seeing the flames, about 200 policemen rushed to the spot. They had to face heavy stone pelting. Then, instead of using force and firing plastic bullets and teargas shells, the police decided to retreat. They were chased by the stone-pelting mob for over a kilometre.A 45-second video depicting the stone-pelting mob chasing about 200 policemen has gone viral. A police officer told TOI that whenever policemen have been caught running away from the mob, they have faced inquiry. But considering the situation in Kaigaon Toka, it was a “strategic move.”State police chief Datta Padsalgikar told TOI, “The decision to withdraw the force from the bridge was a strategic move to draw the hostile mob from the bridge and ultimately prevent further loss of life.”An additional director general of police said that if the police had retaliated to the stone-pelting, the mob might have jumped over the bridge and lead to loss of life.It was only after they were off the bridge that the police used force. It was in this melee that the head constable from Osmanabad sustained a heart attack and collapsed.A deputy superintendent of police, who was present at the spot, said they took action only after the entry to the bridge was blocked. “The violent mob was prevented from going back onto the bridge, which is the key road that connects Aurangabad to Ahmednagar and Pune districts,” he said.

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