Five persons were injured in police lathi-charge here today when a group of villagers tried to prevent the fencing work at the site of the Tata Motors' small car project prompting the state government to instruct police not to use bullets or batons to keep protestors at bay.Director General of Police (Midnapore range) N Ramesh Babu, who is at the spot where the fencing work is going on, told reporters that the decision of not using bullets or batons was taken after the lathi-charge.Five persons were injured in the lathi-charge when they tried to prevent workers from the fencing work at Jaimolla under Beraberi gram panchayat. Fencing work started yesterday.A group of villagers entered the field earmarked for the project. Confronted by the police, the villagers began pelting stones at the policemen who, in retaliation, lathi-charged leading to injuries to five persons who were taken into custody, the police said.Shankar Bhattacharjee, leader of left opposition SUCI, alleged that the lathi-charge was without any provocation.Congress District President Preetam Ghosh alleged that the police destroyed the party camp near the site last night though Superintendent of Police Supratim Sarkar had assured him that camps would stay.
