NEW DELHI: Three street urchins, aged between four and seven years, were mercilessly whipped in full public view by a policeman in uniform on Janpath.
Not a single finger was lifted in protest as the policeman, R.K Chauhan, lashed the urchins with a leather whip.
The children two girls, one of them barely four years old, and a boy-were dragged by their hair to the police assistance booth on Janpath outside India Oil Bhavan (next to a boo bios) by some shopkeepers.
They alleged that some junk Jewelry had been spilled from their stalls by the parents of these children who beg on Janpath.
Soon after R.K. Chauhan, sporting a service revolver and egged on by the shopkeepers, began thrashing the children as a crowd gathered. Two other policemen were present at the booth.
When this reporter intervened, the policemen said that the only way he could find out the whereabouts of the parents was by beating the children. Although the beating stopped after some more people protested against the grotesque assault, by then the children were writhing on the ground in pain, barely able to lift their arms which had received most of the blows,
One of the girls kept on pleading “Aujhe mat maaro, aur mat macro.”
The policemen in rufti refused to give their names, saying they were on “VIP duty” -whatever that means. R.K. Chauhan could not hide his identity as he was wearing a nameplate.
Article extracted from this publication >> Aug 14, 1992
