The cop approached the vegetable market in a high-speed police jeep with loud sirens
Prayagraj:
Uttar Pradesh police sub-inspector suspended, transferred from Prayagraj, state after video was widely posted on social media earlier this afternoon showing a vehicle police station speeding through vegetables laid on the ground in a rural Mandi or market area.
“It is a deplorable act,” said Prayagraj police chief Satyarth Anirudh Pankaj, while announcing the suspension.
Two video clips were viral on social media all day – they came from a village under the Ghoorpur police station in the district. The first video shows a police jeep approaching the vegetable market at leisurely speed and with loud sirens. As people scramble for cover, the vehicle rolls over vegetables and fruit lying on the ground. Another video shows the vehicle in reverse and then crushing the remaining vegetables on the ground again – people are again seen running for cover to prevent the police vehicle from being driven dangerously into an overcrowded area.
It is unclear exactly what prompted the dangerous move by the cops – sources say they had previously tried to provide “social distancing” to the mandi, but people were unwilling to listen.
Last month, Uttar Pradesh police officials ordered an investigation after a video on a mobile phone showed that a team of West Meerut police officers overturned carts of vegetables in a locality of the city had gone viral.
The 40-second video, filmed from a terrace in a congested district of Meerut, shows a policeman, who is said to be the head of a police station in the region, leading a huge contingent of policemen on a march inside the locality. This policeman is accompanied by another cop with a gun. Many more cops in riot gear follow them.
Many of these police officers overturn vegetable carts placed on the side of the street. The cop leading this force seems to be making gestures asking his subordinates to overturn the carts as they go.
