Man accuses UP Police of hammering nails into feet, hand for violating COVID-19 curfew

Representational Image (IANS)

Bareilly: A man in Uttar Pradesh's Bareilly on Wednesday (May 26) accused the state police of hammering nails into his hand and foot for not wearing mask and thus violating the COVID-19 curfew. However, the claims has been denied by a senior official who said the injuries were self-inflicted. 

The victim, identified as Ranjit, arrived at the Baradari Police Station along with his mother, with nails drilled in his hand and foot. He accused the police of committing the barberic act against him for defying the COVID curfew. In his complaint, he alleged that he was blindfolded by the police after which the Uttar Pradesh cops hammered nails on his body. 

He was arrested in 2019 for damaging God's idol in a temple

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 Ranjit at Baradari police station. The police official claimed that the man was previously sent behind the bars for damaging God's idol at temples in Bareilly. "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.

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

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.