Bhopal, Jul 16 (IANS): Madhya Pradesh police on Saturday resorted to lathicharge on Congress workers and leaders protesting in Bhopal against alleged irregularities in Patwaris' (revenue officials) recruitment process.

In the police actions, newly-appointed Bhopal district Congress chief Monu Saxena received severe injuries, while several other party workers were also injured. They were rushed to a hospital for treatment.

Demanding a CBI inquiry into the matter, the Congress workers were taking out a protest march from Bhopal's Roshanpura Chowk to Shyamla Hills to gherao Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan's official residence.

Aware of the protest, a heavy police force was deployed with multi-layer barricades. The protesters tried to jump the police barricades, which prompted the personnel to use water cannon to disperse them. Fail to control the protesters with water cannons, the police resorted to lathicharge.

During the protest, a scuffle also broke out between some Congress workers and police personnel deployed on duty.

The state Congress office released a video, showing that Saxena was badly injured and was spitting blood while lying on a hospital bed. It condemned the lathicharge on party workers terming it a "barbaric act" of the police.

The Congress also alleged that the police resorted to the lathicharge on the instructions of Chief Minister Chouhan.

State Congress chief Kamal Nath also condemned the "barbarism" meted out to Bhopal Congress workers. "I want to tell the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government very clearly that the people of Madhya Pradesh have made up their minds to uproot the BJP government. Neither the Congress workers nor the people of Madhya Pradesh are afraid of your (Shivraj Singh Chouhan's) atrocities. Each and every worker of the Congress will continue to fight the battle to uproot the misrule with double enthusiasm," Kamal Nath said expressing his anguish on social media.