Bantala: A fresh incident of migrant workers facing harassment by policemen while on their way home amid lockdown has surfaced in Odisha.
The incident was reported from Mahidharpur police outpost area under Banarpal police limits in Angul district.
A video shot there shows a cop stopping, questioning and then beating up a number of labourers for ‘defying’ lockdown orders. Another man in uniform could be seen standing there watching the torture.
The cop made the workers kneel down on road under scorching sun to punish them. This behaviour of the policeman has not gone well with netizens who condemned the act of the cop and demanded strict action against him.
According to sources, the labourers were walking all the way to a place in Sambalpur as none of the units, where they worked in Bhubaneswar, are operating owing to the lockdown. Two of them are from Madhya Pradesh while others are from Sambalpur.
When asked, Mahidharpur police outpost ASI Ashok Kumar Tripathy said, “I was absent when the cop punished the labourers. I along with the Tehsildar and RI had gone to a nearby brick factory for inspection.”
“I got information about the incident in the evening. Action will be taken against the policeman as per SP’s instruction,” he added.
