Phagwara SHO acts against vendor in Bollywood style, faces suspension after video goes viral

Tribune News Service

Phagwara, May 5

As SHO City Phagwara Navdeep Singh and his team went to Sarai Road this afternoon to take action against vegetable vendors who had kept their carts along the road against police directions, he chose to act in a typical Bollywood style.

Opening the door of his vehicle, he alights from it and goes straight to a vendor and kicks a basketful of green chilies that was put up for sale. Scared, all vendors scattered here and there. The act of the SHO, which was probably intended at terrorising vendors, got recorded in a 15-second video clip and immediately went viral. As the viral video reached the senior police officials, the SHO was immediately placed under suspension for his ‘wrong behaviour’.

DGP Punjab Dinkar Gupta also had to take to Twitter to clarify the stand as he wrote: “Absolutely shameful and unacceptable. I have suspended SHO Phagwara. Such misbehaviour will not be tolerated at any cost and those who indulge in it will have to face serious consequences.” Even SSP Kapurthala Kanwardeep Kaur was made to rush to Phagwara and take action against the SHO.

He was immediately replaced by Inspector Balwinder Pal Singh.

The SSP also issued a release to the media, in which she wrote: “Today, a video that was in circulation on various social media platforms came to my notice. In this video, SHO City Phagwara Navdeep Singh was seen damaging the property of a street side vegetable vendor. As a member of a disciplined force, such behaviour is against service rules and unwarranted. Under the supervision of DGP Punjab, the Punjab Police have been working at the forefront of the war against Covid-19 for over a year now and has served the people of Punjab with dedication. During this, we have also lost many officers to Covid-19. But this kind of a behaviour brings a bad name to the entire force. Taking strict action against the officer, he has been immediately placed under suspension. A departmental inquiry has been initiated against him. The officers of Kapurthala police have contributed from their salaries for providing compensation to the vegetable vendor. We are committed to serving the people of Kapurthala with sincerity and honesty and any such act by any officer shall be strictly dealt with.”

It is learnt that for the past many days, the cops had been asking vendors who used to park their carts at Sarai Road here for retail sale, not to leave it at a particular place and instead move about in colonies for door-to-door supply. The nearly 100 stranded vendors in the area had been resulting in crowding, which the administration could not allow in the prevailing circumstances. The SHO, instead of getting challans issued or taking some action, kicked the produce of a vendor, which got recorded. He hence invited action against himself.

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