PremiumChhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel has instructed the removal of district collector Ranbir Sharma from Surajpur immediately after a video of him slapping a youngster went viral on social media.
"The case of misbehaviour with a young man by Surajpur collector Ranbir Sharma has come to my notice through social media. It is very sad and condemnable. In Chhattisgarh, no such act will be tolerated at all," said Baghel on Twitter.
"Such conduct is not acceptable in the official life of any officer. I am upset with this incident. I apologize to the young man and his family," he added.
Sharma has been replaced by IAS Gaurav Kumar Singh as the collector of Surajpur.
In the video being circulated on social media, the young man can be seen showing a piece of paper and something on his mobile phone to Sharma who takes the device and throws it to the ground.
After slapping him, he encourages two policemen who rush to the spot and start hitting the man with sticks.
He had issued an apology on Saturday after being faced with sharp criticism for physically assaulting a citizen.
Sharma said the reason for his outburst was that the man in the viral video lied to the officials and misbehaved with them.
"Today a video is viral on social media in which I am shown slapping a man who was out during lockdown. He said he was out for vaccination but there was no proper documentation to justify his claim. Later, he said he was going to visit his grandmother. I slapped him in heat of the moment when he misbehaved," said Sharma.
He said he "sincerely apologises" for his behaviour and it was never his intention to disrespect the person.
"The Covid-19 situation in Surajpur is bad. I along with my parents tested positive recently. We all employees of the state government are striving hard to tackle this problem," he said.
The collector further said that contrary to the claim on social media of the man in the video being a minor, "he is 23-year-old and was speeding and not stopping his two-wheeler despite being told to do so. Later misbehaved with officials".
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