This story is from December 11, 2021

Kanpur Dehat cop suspended for assaulting man with child

A police inspector posted at Akbarpur Kotwali in Kanpur Dehat district was on Thursday suspended after a video, purportedly showing him fiercely raining batons on a person carrying a child in his arms, went viral on social media. The incident took place at the district hospital in Akbarpur area on Thursday afternoon.
Kanpur Dehat cop suspended for assaulting man with child
A man begs for mercy as a cop tries to forcibly yank the child out of his arms in Kanpur Delhat
KANPUR: A police inspector posted at Akbarpur Kotwali in Kanpur Dehat district was on Thursday suspended after a video, purportedly showing him fiercely raining batons on a person carrying a child in his arms, went viral on social media. The incident took place at the district hospital in Akbarpur area on Thursday afternoon.
In the video, another policeman could be seen trying to forcibly yank the child out of his father’s arms as the child cried out in fear.
After the one-minute video went viral and earned the wrath of social media users, the cop was suspended for “insensitivity”.
Going by the video clip, the man could be heard begging the policemen not to hurt the child. “Bachhe ko lag jayegi (the child will get hurt),” the man could be heard pleading to cops as he tried to run away from the police. The cops, however, chased him and a few among the cops tried to forcibly snatch the child away from him. The man refused to give the child saying, “The child is mine,” and added, “Iski maa nahi hai, sahab (the child doesn’t have a mother).”
After the video clip went viral on social media, the Kanpur Dehat Police issued a statement. “A class IV government employee named Rajneesh Shukla, accompanied by 100-150 people, had shut the district hospital’s OPD. A police team from Akbarpur Kotwali rushed to the spot and tried to pacify the agitating employees’ leader, Rajneesh Shukla, and his aides to not obstruct OPD services, but they did not relent,” additional superintendent of police Ghanshyam Chaurasia said.
“Soon, Shukla and his aides locked up the police out-post-in-charge and his team members in a room and started misbehaving. Shukla even bit the finger of the inspector while attacking him,” Chaurasia said and added, “The police used mild force to stop them.”
The local sources said that during the construction of a medical college in the premises of district hospital of Kanpur Dehat, the employees had staged a dharna by locking the OPD on Thursday, alleging that the road and drain got damaged due to the movement of vehicles and mining.

The protesters took the doctors and patients out of the OPD. The officers and police personnel who reached the spot tried to convince the agitating employees. In the meantime, a leader of the employees bit the thumb of the inspector and scuffled with him, then the police beat him fiercely. The police also rain batons on the brother of the leader, who was carrying a child in his arms, and who had come to save him.
After immense outrage over the incident and the police response, the Kanpur Dehat police Twitter handle on Thursday put out a statement, saying an inquiry has been ordered and the concerned police inspector has been suspended with immediate effect.
On Friday morning, another post on the official handle said, “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 protesters 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 displeasure over the viral video was BJP MP Varun Gandhi. He tweeted: “A strong law and order is one where the weakest of the weak can get justice. It is not that those seeking justice have to face this barbarity in place of justice, it is very painful. A fearful society is not an example of the rule of law. Strong law and order is one where there is fear of law, not of police.”
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