Uttar Padesh police’s “high-handed approach” came to light on Monday when a video of policemen frisking motorcyclists at gunpoint in Budaun went viral.
Released by ANI, the video purportedly shows policemen stopping people riding motorcycles in the Wazirganj area of the city. They ask the riders to get down and keep their hands up, else they will be shot. The policemen are seen pointing a rifle and a revolver at the young men while their team members frisk them.
Senior Superintendent of Police, Budaun, Ashok Kumar Tripathi has defended the action, describing it as a “strategic move”. “In the past, we have lost our resources during such checking when the riders take out their firearms and shoot at policemen. It is just a preventive measure.”
‘Humiliating exercise’
However, locals said it was not a standard operating procedure. “If the police have doubt that criminals are moving in a certain area, they put barricades. It could be very humiliating for an innocent citizen,” said Shafi Ahmed, president, Youth Congress, Budaun. He told The Hindu that they would raise the issue with the SSP.
Ironically, the video surfaced on a day when the Twitter handle of the U.P. police was promoting a video where officers in Lucknow were seen administering an oath to bikers not to leave home without helmets.
The Twitterati ridiculed the police with some calling it “a scene straight out of a Hollywood movie”.
