A man dropping to his knees on the road and pleading with the police for an oxygen cylinder in Uttar Pradesh's Agra has gone viral in the deluge of tragic videos highlighting India's Covid emergency. Some reports say he was begging the police not to take away an oxygen cylinder he had arranged for his mother. But the police claim he was only requesting an oxygen cylinder while an empty one was being taken away.
In the viral video, the man, dressed in PPE suit, wails and falls at the feet of policemen, his hands folded.
"Aapke charanon mein vinti karta hoon...Bhaiya meri ma ko bacha lo (I am at your feet, requesting you. Please save my mother)," the man weeps until he is dragged away by people who could be from his family. Policemen watch as a cylinder is carried away, apparently from the hospital, by two men.
The video was taken outside the private Upadhyay Hospital in Agra.
The Youth Congress, which also shared the video, targeted Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and wrote: "This is a really heart-breaking video. A man is begging in front of policeman not to take a Oxygen cylinder he has arranged for his mom in Agra, UP. This is a total inhumane act by the police. Is this how you should treat your fellow citizens Mr Yogi?"
The police have put out a different version of the incident and have condemned what they call fake allegations.
"This video is from outside Upadhyay Hospital. Two days ago, because of a shortage of oxygen in Agra, some people were arranging their own personal cylinder and giving them to hospitals for their relatives' treatment. In this video, an empty cylinder is being taken away by two men. The man is requesting the police to arrange cylinders for him too so his relative inside the hospital can be treated," said the Agra police on Wednesday evening.
In an escalating crisis of Covid in India, stories of desperation for oxygen, hospital beds, medicines, even cremation spaces, have surfaced from many parts of the country.
Today, the country reported a record 3.79 lakh cases in 24 hours, and 3,645 deaths.
Uttar Pradesh yesterday recorded its highest single-day rise in Covid deaths - 266 - and 29,824 new cases.
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