Lucknow: Ten policemen were suspended from duty Tuesday. This development came after a man in his mid-20s died by suicide in Uttar Pradesh’s Baghpat district. Allegedly the man had a brawl with cops at a Covid-19 vaccination centre Monday. Among the 10 policemen suspended from duty, five have also been named in an ‘abetment to suicide’ complaint. The man’s body was found hanging from a tree near his village last night.
The man’s family members alleged that he was forced to end his life by cops who assaulted him ‘for no reason’ at a Covid-19 vaccination centre set up in the western UP district of Baghpat. The man returned to his home where his mother was also beaten up by the cops.
The 90-second video of the man being assaulted Monday afternoon at the vaccination centre has been shot on mobile phone. The video has been circulated on various social media platforms. It shows the at least two policemen trying to grab the man. A second person who tries to intervene is pushed away by the cops. After a struggle with the cops the man manages to wriggle free and escape.
In his police complaint, the father of the victim alleged the argument started when the cops did not let his son enter the vaccination centre. This happened even after the man’s name was announced for vaccination by the medical staff on duty at the camp.
“The police pushed my son around and, when he asked them why, they started beating him. He was then dragged to a room where he was assaulted with lathis. We managed to get him away from there, but later in the evening, a large number of cops arrived at my house. They forcibly entered my house and assaulted my wife. My son was very scared and he ran away. We found his body later,” the father was quoted as saying by ‘NDTV.com’.
“We have filed a case and have removed 10 police personnel from duty. The body has been sent for post-mortem. We will fight to see that the culprits are punished. We will not spare anyone,” Baghpat’s police chief, Abhishek Singh, said in a video statement.
