Kanpur (Uttar Pradesh): A video has gone viral on social media where a police officer in Kanpur is seen thrashing and forcibly holding a woman in a locked room. The video, which was shared on the Samajwadi Party's Twitter account, has sparked outrage among the public.
The footage, which is over two minutes long, shows the woman begging for help and shouting in pain as the police officer, who is believed to be a sub-inspector in the Kakwan area of Kanpur, thrashes and manhandles her.
People, who are outside the room are seen yelling at the policeman, asking him to open the door. The woman, meanwhile, is seen pleading for help. "Why have you locked the door, what are doing to her," people are heard shouting in the video. "He is beating me, torturing me," says the woman from inside the room.
The cop is apparently aware that his actions are being recorded and he tries to defend himself, saying: "You people are not doing the right thing with police, whatever you are doing is wrong." Despite this, he continues to manhandle the woman until the end of the video.
The Samajwadi Party condemned the incident and called for an investigation into the actions of the police officer. In a tweet, it demanded an investigation into the incident and strict action against the cop. "Shameful act of Kanpur police. Every day, videos of Yogi government's police doing atrocities on citizens emerge, but the chief minister stays silent. Matter must be probed and action should be taken on the cop," the party tweeted.
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As the video went viral, Kanpur Commissioner of Police BP Jogdand came up with a video statement on the entire matter. "We have taken serious cognizance of the viral video in which a woman is seen being manhandled by a police officer. The matter is of Kakwan police station area."
"The police officer had visited the spot to fetch the Aadhaar card of a woman who is a major and had performed court marriage against her family's wish. While she wanted to live with her husband, her family was against it. The sub-inspector had gone to her family's home to fetch her Aadhaar card. However, when he went there, they attacked the officer. The woman he is holding forcibly in the video is the sister of the married woman and the officer had held her since she was attacking the police party.
"However, as one sees in the video, the police officer was seen keeping her forcibly in the room. We took strong action against it. Deputy Commissioner of Police West Lakhan Singh Yadav and Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police South Ankita Sharma were rushed to the spot. They understood, checked and tested all the facts," the CP said.
He added that the investigation by the two top cops found that the sub-inspector held the hands of the girl to "protect himself and avoid any situation in which she harmed anyone". "Statements of all the people related to the incident, examination of their statements, cross-examination of statements, statements of all the people present in the neighborhood, feed from CCTV cameras installed in the neighborhood, and footage taken from multimedia mobiles received from other people have been fetched," the officer said.
"In this context, all necessary action is being taken by the police so that such a situation is not repeated in the future," he added.
