A video, showing an province police personnel kicking a bystander watching an ongoing search operation at a Ganga ghat in Mirzapur leading tothe person falling into the river, has gone viral with netizens raising questions on the conduct of police personnel within the state.
An embarrassed department of local government had to order a departmental inquiry into the incident involving the police office officer of Vindhyachal Kotwali police headquarters in Mirzapur. The officer’s name is reported to be Sheshdhar Pandey. The inquiry was ordered after the incident invited condemnation from political fronts including the Bahujan Jagriti Manch of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).
“This is how Mirzapur Police kicks the helpless from behind. a person standing near Ganga was kicked by the Kotwal (station incharge). The youth fell into river Ganga,” a tweet from the organisation’s official handle said.
A statement released by the Mirzapur police, however, defended Pandey’s behavior and claimed that he was only trying to enforce social distancing at the river bank, where a crowd had gathered to observe an ongoing search operation for the body of a person who had drowned within the river it slow ago, per a newswithin the Print.
