Punjab cops' brutality, shaming Facebook videos raise hackles

JALANDHAR: After imposition of curfew in Punjab, several videos of Punjab Police personnel thrashing people moving about in the curfew to buy essential items like milk are going viral on the social media. Initially, when a few videos surfaced on Tuesday, several netizens praised the force for using Danda (their batons) to push people into their homes.However, after more such videos showing cops thrashing people and using filthy abuses appeared on Wednesday and Thursday, the netizens rapped the cops' brutality and for filming this 'instant punishment'.
All these videos have been filmed by the cops to shame the people flouting the curfew and to create fear among people. These videos have surfaced at a time when Punjab DGP Dinkar Gupta and CM Captain Amarinder Singh have praised the cops and shared clips of them distributing essential commodities to people. While official machinery has been working hard to ensure supply of essential items, in three videos a police team led by a non gazetted officer (NGO), can be seen thrashing three people separately on a street against the backdrop of an official Scorpio vehicle with Mohali registered numberplate. In one video, they badly thrash a man carrying a wheat bag and other items on his scooter. The same team is seen thrashing another biker who is apparently taking milk home. In the third video, this group beats up a motorist to the accompaniment of crude expletives by the NGO.
In a few videos cops also are also seen humiliating people by making them to rub their noses on the ground, reducing one of the victims to tears.
In an incident in Amritsar a pregnant woman said that she and her husband were not allowed to fetch medicines and cops slapped her husband and chased them to their house and again thrashed him, leaving him with fractured nose. The CCTV footage of the incident has also gone viral.
In Amritsar, a fire wing personnel Naresh Sharma was thrashed by cops at Hakiman Wala Gate when he was going to work even afte he showed his identity card. He too fractured his arm.
In another video, an ASI is seen thrashing a youth with his baton while a constable repeatedly hits him with a slipper on his head as the youth pleads for mercy. After this, the two cops thrash another youth who is caught by men in civvies. In another one, a cop has been filmed with his family on a bike and two persons driving alongside repeatedly ask him why he is violating the restrictions when people are being thrashed everywhere.
Aghast by this, RTI activists Parvinder Singh Kitna and Kuldeep Singh Khaira has sent this video to Punjab DGP Dinkar Gupta with a complaint. Punjab and Haryana high court advocate H C Arora urged the Punjab chief minister and state DGP to ask the police personnel to not indulge in brutality. While the state DGP didn't take calls, ADGP law and order Ishwar Singh said, "We have given clear instructions to police personnel to help public during the curfew."
Faridkot-based activist and gynaecologist Dr Jiwanjot Kaur on Thursday wrote to Punjab and Haryana high court chief justice on the brutality and pointed out that "fear among people would further weaken their immune system which is so crucial".
A woman ASI posted a video justifying the police thrashing saying that they "slap" the violators to keep them indoors and away from harm.