Uttar Pradesh man accuses police of hammering nails into his foot, hand for violating COVID curfew

BAREILLY: A man in Uttar Pradesh's Bareilly on Wednesday accused police of hammering nails into his hand and foot for allegedly violating the Covid curfew, a claim denied by a senior official who said the injuries were self-inflicted.

Ranjit, along with his mother, reached Baradari police station with nails drilled in his hand and foot, and blamed the police.

However, Bareilly SSP Rohit Singh Sajwan refuted the allegations and termed them baseless.

The SSP said the injuries were self-inflicted to evade arrest in a case registered against him at Baradari police station.

"He did all this drama to save himself from the police. The charges levelled by him were not found to be true in the probe," Sajwan said.

The SSP said an FIR was registered against Ranjit, a resident of Jogi Navada, on May 24 for misbehaving with a police constable who had asked him not to wander without a mask in public.

The FIR was registered under IPC sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 504 (intentional insult with intention to provoke breach of peace), 506 (criminal intimidation), 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty), 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), 188 (disobedience to order duty promulgated by public servant) and 270 (malignant act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life).

"The accused was absconding after the incident and police were searching for him," the SSP said.

The police went to Ranjit's house on Tuesday night, but he was not there, Sajwan said.

In 2019, Ranjit was arrested by the police for entering a temple in an inebriated state and damaging the idols there.