Watch: UP policeman makes complainant massage his feet, suspended

The real state of policing and law and order in Uttar Pradesh was revealed on Monday when a video surfaced in which a man who had gone to file a complaint at a police station in Lucknow was seen massaging the feet of the station house officer. [caption id=“attachment_2928366” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Screenshot from CNN-News18 video.[/caption] According to News18, Ram Yagya Yadav, SHO of the Mohanlalganj police station in Lucknow, asked the complainant to massage his feet. The report added that even though the complainant initially thought the SHO was joking about the massage, he was later forced to massage his feet. The policeman in the video can be seen casually talking to someone over the phone as the man massages his feet while other policemen at the station do not intervene. Yadav was suspended after the video of the act went viral. Another report in The Indian Express said that the police said it was not clear whether the person giving the massage was a complainant or a detainee. The Uttar Pradesh Police has been facing charges of being lax and inefficient as the recent spate of crimes in the state shook the whole country. Four UP policemen have been suspended so far in the Bulandshahr gangrape case. The officials suspended include SSP Bulandshahr Vaibhav Kishan, SP city Rammohan Singh, Circle Officer (Sadar) Himanshu Gaurav, which takes the total number of policemen suspended on charges of laxity to four. Reacting to the allegations of dereliction of duty by the Bulandshahr police, Uttar Pradesh administration had earlier suspended the Station House Officer (SHO) Ramsen Singh. Earlier, the UP police had claimed that they had identified the main accused in the case and had detained 15 people. However, according to Times Now reports, the National Commission for Women (NCW) contradicted the UP Police’s claim stating only one person was apprehended in the case. The TV channel also reported that the family tried calling the police emergency number but did not get any response. It was also said that the police overlooked evidence and were not thorough in examining the crime scene. CNN News-18 reported that a gold chain, that could have belonged to the victim, was found lying at the spot one day after the incident. The report further said that evidence from the scene has now been sent for forensic examination. And the fact that a police station was just 100 metres from where the incident happened has also raised eyebrows on the police’s response time after the incident. NCW has also questioned the lack of patrolling on the stretch of highway especially since the incident lasted for more than three hours. You can watch the video of the UP policeman asking for massage here:

(With inputs from agencies)