In yet another display of police atrocity in Chennai, two employees of a supermarket were beaten up for trying to stop a policewoman from shoplifting. The CCTV camera footage from the store shows the men being assaulted allegedly by the policewoman’s husband, her brother and one of their friends.
The incident reportedly happened on Wednesday, when a policewoman came to the Nilgiris supermarket in Egmore. The CCTV footage recovered from the shop shows a policewoman, in her uniform, walking among the product shelves for some time while talking on the phone. The footage shows that the cop, at one point, taking a product from one of the shelves and stuffing it into her pocket.
The footage then shows a group of men entering the shop and slapping a man, allegedly an employee of the store. The men are also seen assaulting another man who came to the rescue of the beaten employee.
Speaking to TNM, an employee of the store confirmed that the incident had occurred, saying that the theft happened on Wednesday afternoon.
“In the afternoon, we caught the policewoman shoplifting… we made her return the item and apologise. She left after that. In the evening, three men – her husband, her brother and one of their friends – came to the shop and beat up two of our employees. Our owner was there at that time coincidentally and they threatened him too. After the men left, the owner took the two employees to the hospital,” he said.
The shop owner lodged an FIR in the Egmore police station after the incident.
A police officer from Egmore police station told TNM that the policewoman’s husband has been remanded on Wednesday and a search is on to locate her brother.
“We have registered cases on the two men under sections 323 (Punishment for voluntarily causing hurt) and 506 (Punishment for criminal intimidation) of the IPC. Departmental action will also be taken on the policewoman based on the note we have sent to higher authorities,” he said.
It was only last week that a 22-year-old student, Haroon Sait, from Chetpet posted on Facebook claiming that he was thrashed by the police. In the viral post, he said that the police had beaten him up for not carrying the original registration certificate (RC Book) of his vehicle.
Later, Commissioner of Police AK Viswanathan visited Haroon and expressed his regret over the incident. The Commissioner also reportedly assured Haroon of his full support in his fight against police brutality.