Five cops dismissed for thrashing paan wallah

LUCKNOW: In an unprecedented move, five policemen, who were caught on camera thrashing a paan shopowner in Shahjahanpur were dismissed from service on Monday.
While the group of five were placed under suspension soon after the video of their ‘act’ started doing the rounds over social media on Sunday noon, the department decided to show them the exit door within 24 hours. Posting a tweet around 9pm on Monday, DGP OP Singh stated ‘such kind of behaviour will not be tolerated and similarly dealt with in future too.’ In the video, a group of men were caught raining lathis on a man in Sadar Bazar area of Shahjahanpur. An inquiry was ordered and it was found they were Shahjahanpur Police’s constables who acted in an extremely inhuman manner with innocent vendor. Roaming in plainclothes, the constables apparently got offended after the vendor demanded payment for cigarettes and gutka packets that the group had taken from him.

While the department had already apologized on behalf of its men on Sunday evening and clarified that inquiry was on, on Monday evening it announced that they had been thrown out.

“No justification can be offered for such behaviour hence we decided to issue marching orders to the group of five constables. Beholders of law are not expected to turn into perpetrators even on being provoked,” said Singh.

Earlier on Monday, during a public function that was organised at Lucknow police lines DGP Singh said, “Shahjahanpur mein 5-10 rupee ke liye 5 policewaale, 5 minute tak thelewaale ko behrehami se peettey hain; is ghatna ne mujhe sharmasaar kiya hai. (Five cops kept beating a vendor for five minutes for Rs 5-10 in Shahjahanpur. This incident made me hang my head in shame).”