Cop demands 'leg massage' to register complaint

An Uttar Pradesh Police officer, who is said to have got complainants to give him a leg massage before listening to their problems, was suspended on Monday.

The state government took action after a video showing Sub Inspector Ramyajna Yadav, deployed at the Mohanlalganj police station on the outskirts of Lucknow, being given a leg massage went viral on social networking sites.

The video clip showed a barefooted man sitting on the ground and massaging Yadav’s leg, while the officer was talking on his cell phone.

“We are trying to ascertain if the man is a complainant or whether he was brought to the police station in connection with some other case,” a police official said.

The officials said that a probe had been ordered into the matter. “The investigation has been handed over to a circle officer. Stern action will be taken against the sub inspector if he is found guilty of wrongdoing,” an official said. 

This incident comes in the wake of another video showing a Dalit cobbler polishing the shoes of officers at a police station in UP's Muzaffarnagar district a few months ago went viral.

The cobbler Sittu, a resident of Haibatpur village in the district, had approached the Charthawal police station to lodge a complaint after his cell phone was stolen.

The officer concerned asked Sittu (50) what he does for a living.  On hearing that he was a cobbler, the officer asked him to polish the shoes of all the policemen in the station if he wanted his complaint to be registered.

The hapless cobbler went back home and returned to the police station with his shoe-polish kit.

He polished the shoes of almost all the police personnel in the station.