An officer of the Madhya Pradesh Police, on Wednesday, 27 July, assaulted an elderly man on a railway station platform in Jabalpur, a social media video revealed. After the clip went viral, the constable, Anant Kumar Sharma from Rewa's Laur police, was suspended.
Sharma, who was travelling from Jabalpur to Rewa, was identified based on CCTV footage. The video of the incident showed the cop repeatedly kicking the man on his face. When the victim tried to get up, he dragged him by his feet and thrashed him again.
This is, however, not the first time that the police brutality has come to light in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-governed state. In March 2020, right before the nationwide lockdown came into force, a lawyer was beaten up by the police on the suspicion of being Muslim.
Deepak Bandele, who was trying to go to the hospital for treatment, tried to explain that he needed to go to the hospital for regular treatment due to a history of high blood pressure. But one police official slapped him without listening to what he had to say.
The thrashing stopped only after Bandele told them he was a lawyer and would complain against them to the senior incharges.
“You had a long beard, that is why police officials beat you up. They thought you were a Muslim. The man who thrashed you is a kattar (staunch) Hindu," the police had said.
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