Thiruvananthapuram: While addressing the media after the COVID-19 review meeting, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan criticised Kannur district police chief Yathish Chandra IPS after he punished several persons who violated curfew.
CM said that such incidents tarnish the image of the police force and must not happen again and added that the home secretary has sought an explanation from DGP Loknath Behera in this regard. Meanwhile DGP has sought an explanation from Yathish Chandra.
Around 11 am on Saturday, a patrol team led by Yathish Chandra caught some persons gathered in front of a shop. On seeing the police, some of them ran away while three were caught by the police.
The IPS officer then made the three perform squats while holding their earlobes. Video of the incident had gone viral on social media.
This is for the first time that Kerala police gave public punishment for violating lockdown. Yathish Chandra had explained that the punishment was to create awareness among the public.
“We are registering cases every day. But despite the number of cases registered, people do not want to stay at home. They don’t seem to understand the gravity of the situation. For the last four days, we had been politely asking the public to remain indoors. However, nobody took it seriously,” Yathish Chandra told Mathrubhumi News.
“Those who were caught were elderly people and we did not want to beat them. But we had to make them stay indoors. Hence, I gave them the punishment to make everyone stay at home. It was only meant to create awareness,” the IPS officer explained.
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