MANGALURU: Uniformed cops barging into a private hospital in Falnir area, where bodies of the two men killed in Thursday’s violence were kept, has gone viral, evoking sharp responses from people.Sources said that soon after news of two deaths spread like wildfire on Thrsday evening, a huge number of people gathered in front of the hospital. People had also come to see those injured and admitted to hospital.
Police asked the people to move out and when they did not budge, lobbed teas gas shells to disperse them. When some people ran inside the hospital, police went in search of them.
A CCTV camera installed in the hospital corridor shows the cops repeatedly kicking and pushing a door, in an attempt to open it, but they fail and then leave. Hospital sources said the presence of a huge number of policemen sent shockwaves among patients and their attendants. “There was nothing that warranted the cops to barge into a hospital and force open the door. If they had doubts of miscreants hiding inside the hospital, they could have sought our cooperation to catch them,” said a hospital staff.
Former minister B Ramanath Rai condemned the police behaviour, and alleged that police had even entered the ICU of the hospital. Popular Front of India leader Ashraf K said the cops had assaulted relatives of the two dead men in hospital. Police commissioner PS Harsha and DCP (Crime and Traffic) Lakshmi Ganesh maintained that they had not seen the video, and that many videos were doing the rounds to defame the police.