LUDHIANA: Condemning the brutal incident of the slapping of a senior citizen by an ACP here yesterday, the Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari today demanded strict action against the guilty officer saying, this was disgusting and outrageous as how an elderly man was humiliated and beaten up in full public view just because he had protested the traffic blockade. “Is this the way they perform the sewa?” Tewari taunted the Akali-BJP government while referring to the oft repeated slogan “raj nahi sewa”.

In a strongly worded statement issued here today, the Minister said, no matter what the provocation had been, the police had no right to slap the man who is in his sixties and drag him to the police station and again humiliate him there before forcing him to sign a written apology. “This incident has not only shocked the people of the city, but further shaken their faith in the police”, he said, while adding, instead of protecting people they have resorted to humiliating them.

Tewari demanded strict action against the particular officer who had shown no decency or respect for the elderly man who could be as old as his father’s age. “In fact it should be the police officer who should be apologising to the elderly person for slapping and humiliating him but instead the helpless victim was subjected to further humiliation in the police station before being made to sign an apology”, the minister observed, while reminding the police, “the hand of police is there to protect the people and save their honour and dignity and not to slap and humiliate them publicly”.

The Minister hoped that the Deputy Chief Minister for whose convoy the traffic was blocked that led to the unsavoury incident was seized of the matter. “The propriety demands that the least the Deputy CM could do was to apologise to the victim for the police high handedness”, he said, while remarking, “and I am sure that will go well with their slogan of ‘raj nahi sewa’”.