CHENNAI: A day after DGP JK Tripathy lauded police personnel for their hard work and duty consciousness during the 48-day Aththi Varadhar festival in Kancheepuram, a video of Civil Supplies CID Superintendent Varun Kumar and personnel allegedly pushing a television journalist in the temple premises has been going viral since Friday night.
The video is said to have been shot on Friday evening near Vasantha Mandapam in which a mediaperson Rajesh of a private news channel is seen being shoved by a group of police personnel led by the officer.
Sources said Rajesh along with cameraman Chandru went to take a video of the crowd on the last day of the festival for which police denied permission.
An argument ensued and Varunkumar who was on bandobust duty rushed to the spot and allegedly pushed the TV journalist. While the video has been going viral since Friday night, several journalists’ unions have condemned the police excess and sought action against the police officer involved.
Meanwhile, the SP has reacted to the video on Twitter claiming that the TV crew blocked the emergency buffer route in Sector 4 of Ananda Saras tank through which policemen sent wheelchair-bound devotees and pregnant women.
“If they were not removed, it would have led to the stampede-like situation as the crowd was swelling at 7 pm since it was the last day of the darshan. Cops did their duty to move you away,” the SP had posted.
He also said the video has been purportedly muted to portray police in bad light.