New Delhi: A viral video of police officers in Madhya Pradesh’s Jabalpur punishing two miscreants by making them play the pungi (an air horn) in each other’s ears and do squats has drawn condemnation on Twitter.
The video is reportedly from Dussehra when the two accused caught on tape had been creating a nuisance and harassing attendees of Dussehra festivities there by driving close to them on two-wheelers and blowing the loud horn in their ears. Large crowds had gathered and remained out until late at night due to the festival.
In a report, Hindi daily Danik Bhaskar wrote that the Jabalpur police was directed to remain vigilant through Navami celebrations and on Dussehra night in particular because the local youth are reportedly known to harass festival goers in this manner.
Chief superintendent of police (CSP) Tushar Singh told the newspaper that the superintendent of police (SP) had issued orders for the officers to remain extra vigilant.
However, the police’s treatment of the young men when they were apprehended is what drew condemnation online.
The viral video shows the two men being made to loudly blow the pungi in each other’s ears, with each wincing in pain when their turn came. Thereafter, the men were made to do squats in the middle of the crowd while being recorded by the police.
The Bhaskar report notes that the two men seen on video were just few of the many such people apprehended by the police on Dussehra night and made to do squats and blow the horns in each other’s ears.
Twitter users were quick to criticise the Jabalpur police for this act of ‘frontier justice’, taking it upon themselves to punish the offenders in a potentially harmful way rather than following due process.
Twitter user Samir Ansari asked which law allowed the police to take justice into their own hands, writing that the men should have been produced before a court.
Others called the police’s actions “illegal” and pointed out the physical damage that could have been caused to the offenders.
Several other videos, too, surfaced of Jabalpur police blowing pungi into the earns of young men they found guilty of “harassing” the public.
Amidst the criticism, however, there was also a spate of social media users who defended the police’s extrajudicial violence.