Visuals of an incident where a man who was going to buy medicines was slapped by a district official and thrashed by policemen amid the Covid-19 lockdown have gone viral on social media. The incident occurred in Chattisgarh’s Surajpur. The man, Sahil Gupta, has been booked for speeding, the police said.
It can be seen in the video that the person is taking out his identity papers as the district collector, Ranbir Sharma, walks to him. The collector asks the person to give his mobile phone, and the district collector can be seen smashing the phone on the road, and suddenly, he slaps the person.
The official then asks some policemen to thrash the person and scolds him for recording the incident in the video. The police have said that an FIR has been filed against the person in the video for speeding and not stopping his two-wheeler despite being asked to.
“I was going to a medical store. The district magistrate said, ‘where are you going?’ I told him I am going to a medical store. Then he starts hitting me and told others to hit me,” said Mr. Gupta.
The district collector later said he had “no intention to disrespect or belittle the person in the video,” he also stated, “Today, a video is viral on the social media in which I am shown slapping a man who was out during lockdown. I sincerely apologize. I never had any intention to disrespect or belittle the person in the video.”
“In this pandemic situation, district Surajpur along with entire Chhattisgarh is facing the irreparable loss of life. We, government employees of the state government, are striving hard to tackle this problem. My parents and I were also affected by the coronavirus. I am now post-Covid, but my mother is still positive and undergoing treatment at home,” he said.
Further, he refuted all the claims made on social media regarding the person in the video being a minor, “Also, that person in the video is not a minor as mentioned in many social media platforms.”