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Kolkata Police
Image: Screenshots from viral video in left and right, and in the centre, image of Kolkata CP Soumen Mitra from Kolkata Police's official Twitter handle.

Kolkata Police chief apologizes after video of a civic volunteer brutally thrashing pickpocket suspect goes viral

| @indiablooms | Nov 08, 2021, at 11:12 pm

Kolkata/IBNS: Hours after a footage of an on duty civic volunteer (known as Green Police) in Kolkata brutally pinning a pickpocket suspect with his foot on his chest has gone viral on social media, city's police commissioner Soumen Mitra on Monday apologized for the "unexpected" incident.

The Kolkata Police chief said the civic volunteer seen in the video thrashing a man has been demobilised from duty.

"I am shocked and embarrassed. Such behaviour by a member of my force is not expected, Soumen Mitra said.

"The civic volunteer has been demobilised, and an enquiry has been instituted to recommend remedial measures," the CP said.

"Officers will be investigated for a breach of discipline," Mitra added.

Sources in the Kolkata Police said the Officer-in-Charge (OC) and other officials of South Traffic Guard, under which jurisdiction the incident occurred, have been asked to appear before the office of CP Soumen Mitra at Lalbazar, the city police's headquarter.

Tanmoy Biswas, the civic volunteer who was seen thrashing a man in the viral footage, claimed the man had been caught for allegedly pickpocketing a purse from a woman and a mobile from a man in a running Howrah-bound bus.

"The man was nabbed after pickpocketing purse and mobile phone from two passengers in a bus, and just to hold the strong guy, I had to pin him this way for which I am repenting now," the civic volunteer said.

City police officials said the stolen purse and mobile phone had been recovered from his possession and those were handed over to owners immediately.

"The suspect was later handed over to Shakespeare Sarani Police station," an official said.

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