Videos show the cop tying a rope across four lanes of the highway to block traffic.
People travelling on an important highway in Punjab's Jalandhar witnessed extremely unusual scenes yesterday when a policeman lay down in the middle of the road to protest 'corruption' and alleged inaction against criminals by cops at his police station. The unorthodox protest led to a traffic jam on the highway.
"I catch thieves and cops at my police station let them off after taking money," the Home Guard personnel can be heard saying in videos of the incident, which have now gone viral. The videos also show a fellow policeman kicking his prone colleague to get him to leave the road.
The police have denied the man's charges and have also claimed that he was not kicked.
The incident took place on a stretch of the Pathankot highway in Jalandhar's Bhogpur area. Sources said the Home Guard personnel had arrested a man and taken him to the Bhogpur police station. When he went to the police station and asked about the man yesterday, however, his fellow cops gave him evasive answers.
The Home Guard personnel then went to the highway to protest. Videos show him stopping vehicles and tying a rope across four lanes of the highway to block traffic. A fellow policeman can be seen rebuking him and untying the rope, after which the man lies down in front of a bus.
The other policeman is then seen arguing with the man, trying to get him upright and then kicking him. The Home Guard personnel refuses to budge, however, and when the bus tries to go past him, he gets up and lies down in front of it again.
Bhogpur police station in-charge Sukhjit Singh said, "A young man was brought to the police station by the Home Guard personnel in connection with a quarrel. The man had applied for bail, which was granted. He was released after that."
Mr Singh also claimed that the home guard jawan had not been kicked.