Lucknow: Union Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi has said "action must be taken" against the Uttar Policeman who was seen in a video making communal statements in a Muslim locality in Meerut last Friday. The policemen were dealing with violent protests that had broken out in the city after Friday prayers over the amended citizenship law.
In a mobile phone video accessed by NDTV, Akhilesh Narayan Singh, who serves as Superintendent of Police (City) of Meerut, the second in command in the district, can be heard saying "go to Pakistan" to two men.
"If it is true that he made that statement in the video, then it is condemnable. Immediate action must be taken against him," Mr Naqvi said, news agency ANI reported.
"Violence at any level, be it by police or by mob, is unacceptable. It can't be a part of a democratic country. Police should take care that those who are innocent should not suffer," the Union Minister said.
In the video, the police officer Akhilesh Narayan Singh can be seen walking in a narrow lane wearing riot gear. Some other policemen, also in riot gear, are seen walking with him.
Mr Singh stops at a place where a few Muslim men wearing skull caps are standing. "Where will you go? I will set this lane right now that you have given me this chance," the officer tells two men standing nearby, in the video which is a little less than two minutes.
"We were just offering our Namaz," one of them replies.
"That's fine. But these black and blue badges you people are wearing, tell them to go to Pakistan," Mr Singh can be seen telling the men. He continues his rant: "If you do not want to live here then go away. You come here but you sing praises about somewhere else?"
(Image and Inputs from NDTV.com)