Assam police offer lollipop of excuses after beating a specially-abled kid

A day after beating a 16-year old in Bharalumukh, Assam Police DGP Bhaskar Mahanta met the press to throw light on the issue. He stated the real reasons that led to the incident.

"Post curfew hours, there are these kids who come on their motorcycles in that area and the Police were tracking them. At the same time, the kid was there in the mix up that led to the overall situation", said Bhaskar Mahanta.

But at the same time, he reminded about the initiatives the Police force has done by taking responsibility for more than 1200 kids. Mahanta spoke about the Assam Sishu Mitra Programme, which is the collaborative initiative of Assam Police and UNICEF India along with UTSAH Assam this programme focuses on bridging gaps between police and children. He said due diligence will be done through to bridge the gap between children and police.

The DGP said such whenever such incidents happen, it should have been handled better and the kids "should have been given chocolate". He further stated that a 7-day training programme will be initiated in the future to train policemen to handle the situation better.

Meanwhile, the Guwahati Police has ordered an enquiry to ascertain the causative factors and the incident itself to take further action.

Although the measures done to take stock of the situation is appreciated, but isn't the duty of the police to have a sense of awareness regarding the situation they are dealing with in the streets? The govt has left a lot to the police to decide on sitautions like emergency to allow in the lockdown and curfew hours, can we be certain that the very police will cooperate with the public?

Also read: Assam: 123 animals dead in Kaziranga; UK’s Royal Family writes heartfelt letter about park’s devastation

The 16-year-old specially-abled boy was beaten by police in the name of enforcing the curfew rules post 6 pm on July 23^rd, 2020 in Guwahati, Assam. The boy was going with his father to a pharmacy to buy some medicines.

Palash Chaliha, father of the boy, told INSIDENE that the boy was beaten by police at Kumarpara area in the city without questioning them. “We went to buy medicine in the morning, but did not find it. Hence, we went again in the evening. We tried to describe the reason but the police already beat my child with stick,” he added.

The incident came to light after Chaliha raised the issue in a Facebook live post. “Why did the Bharalumukh police beat my child,” he wrote in the post.

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