Photos and videos posted on social media show police across India taking bizarre, even extreme measures to punish individuals who violate the country’s lockdown.
On March 24, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a 21-day nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of Covid-19 in the country.
“To save India, to save every citizen, you, your family, every street, every block will be locked down,” Modi said in a televised address to the nation.
Immediately after the lockdown took effect, many images and videos filmed by citizens and broadcast on television news in India showed groups of police patrolling the streets, ready to apply many strange and somewhat brutal ways to punish anyone who violated the order.
Some people walking on the street were hit on the back with long sticks by police while still sitting on motorbikes, others were forced to stand up, do push-ups or even bend their heads under their legs.
Alok Barman, a domestic worker in southern New Delhi, said he was caned by police as he left his home on the outskirts of the city.
“Some of the families I worked for paid me some money and I thought it would be best to go out and buy some food for my family. But I was caned by the police while I was out on the road,” said Barman. “Now our family has nothing to eat.”
Another local resident, Tarique Anwar, said he was out to buy milk and vegetables at a grocery store in New Delhi’s Jamia Nagar neighborhood when he was stopped by police and asked to go home.
A butcher in the Indian capital’s Zakir Nagar neighborhood also complained that police beat him up and vandalized his shop, for opening it during the lockdown.
“They barged into my shop and beat me up,” he said.
Anil Mittal, a spokesman for the New Delhi Police, denied allegations of abuse by the authorities.
