The police are seen thrashing the man with sticks as the child wails in his arms
Highlights
- Police are seen trying to yank the child out of the man's arms.
- Police then thrashed the man with sticks as the child wailed.
- Senior police official Arun Kumar Singh agreed excessive force was used.
In a shocking incident of excessive force in Uttar Pradesh's Kanpur Dehat, a policeman was filmed mercilessly hitting a man carrying a child in his arms with laathis on Thursday. The cop has been suspended for "insensitivity", police said amid outrage over the incident.
In a nearly one-minute-long clip, the cop - an inspector from the local police station - is first seen thrashing the man with sticks. Later, a second policeman is seen trying to violently yank the child out of the victim's arms as the child wails.
The incident happened at the district hospital in Kanpur Dehat's Akbarpur town on Thursday afternoon.
All through the distressing clip, the man can be heard pleading with the police not to hurt the child. "Bachhe ko lag jayegi (The child will get hurt)," the man is heard saying as he tries to run away from the police. The cops chase him and a few of them try to forcefully pull the child away from him. The man holds on saying, "Iska maa bhi nahi hain (The child doesn't have a mother)."
In a shocking statement that appeared to justify the behaviour of the policemen, a senior police official in Kanpur Dehat said on record that 'light force' was used and that the police actually tried to protect the child.
"A few people were spreading lawlessness in the area, shutting down the Out Patients' Department (OPD) of the hospital and scaring the patients away," Kanpur Dehat's Additional Superintendent of Police Ghanshyam Chaurasia said in the statement.
The man's brother, the chief instigator, is an employee of the district hospital in Kanpur Dehat's Akbarpur and a "regular nuisance maker" who bit the police inspector's hand while the victim also obstructed the police, Mr Chaurasia added.
However, a second official in the area, Deputy Superintendent of Police Arun Kumar Singh earlier accepted that excessive force was used in an interview to NDTV.
After immense outrage over the incident and the police response, the Kanpur Dehat police Twitter handle put out a statement, saying an inquiry has been ordered and the concerned police inspector has been removed from his post.
This morning, another post put out from the official handle said that "while controlling the incident, the cop showed insensitivity... he has been suspended with immediate effect."
"Such conduct on the part of police personnel despite repeated instructions to respect the dignity of every citizen is not acceptable," the UP Police also said on Twitter.
"Some protestors had locked the OPD of the District Hospital and disrupted its services. The Police was attacked when they went to restore order on the request of the Chief Medical Superintendent following which use of mild force was done which is no justification for the insensitivity by the policeman," it further read.
Among those who expressed anger over the widely shared video was BJP MP Varun Gandhi.
"A strong law and order system is the one where the weakest person can get justice... not the one where the one seeking justice has to face barbarity like this. This is painful. A scared society is not an example of law and order prevailing," he wrote in Hindi.
"A strong law and order system is the one where the law is feared, not the police," he added.