On Sunday a video surfaced, purportedly from Uttar Pradesh's Etawah district, showing a police official thrashing a man with a stick as he lies on the ground and cries and pleads for clemency. The blows land indiscriminately, on various parts of his body.
The video appears to have been filmed from a higher vantage point and gives an aerial view of the incident.
The disturbing video was shared by many including the Twitter handle of the Samajwadi Party. According to reports, the video was filmed on May 1. NDTV adds that the man being assaulted was reportedly mentally challenged.
"The barbaric face of the UP police appears again in Biba Mau village of Etawah," the Samajwadi Party tweeted. It added that an innocent mentally handicapped youth had been brutally beaten and said that the suspension of the responsible official after the video went viral was "insufficient". The party called for investigation and suspension for the station house officer as well.
NDTV quoted the Etawah police to identify the man being attacked in the video as Sunil Yadav. According to the police, he is a drug addict and is prone to assaulting local residents. Reportedly, the cops had gone to apprehend him after a villager had complained of assault and arson. However, Yadav tried to attack them with a knife when the officials reached the village.
While the initial report had claimed that officials had used "minimal force" to take Yadav into custody, a detailed probe report later admitted that one of the officials tasked with the job had resorted to using excessive force.
As per tweets on the Etawah Police's Twitter handle, following an investigation by the Jaswant Nagar jurisdictional, the Senior Superintendent of Police in Etawah had suspended the accused with immediate effect. Action was being taken against the official, the handle added.
