In the viral video, a man can be seen squatting in the office of SDM Meerganj tehsil Udit Pawar in Bareilly district.

Bareilly (UP): A Sub-divisional magistrate in Uttar Pradesh’s Bareilly district was removed from his post after a video showed him humiliating and punishing a man in his office by forcing him to squat while holding both ears, went viral on social media platforms.

“Murga Bano (squat like a chicken while holding both ears)”, SDM Meerganj tehsil Udit Pawar tells the man in the video. According to reports, the victim had approached the SDM’s office to lodge a complaint about alleged encroachment of a cremation ground but the officer, instead of hearing his grievances, punished and humiliated him.

Uttar Pradesh-🇮🇳

The scene you are seeing – this is not from the British era, this is the office of Mirganj SDM in Bareilly, the name of the SDM is Udit Pawar, the arrogant SDM turned the complainant into a chicken, the SDM’s side is yet to come, video. It’s viral!!

SDM Saheb… pic.twitter.com/tqYNSTv1aG

— Updates (@sirfupdate) September 16, 2023

A video of the incident went viral on Friday, prompting action against SDM Pawar. On Saturday, Divisional Commissioner Bareilly Saumya Agarwal said that a probe has been ordered into the incident.

District Magistrate Bareilly Shivakant Dwivedi said that prima facie laxity on the part of the SDM Udit Pawar has emerged and he has been attached to the district headquarters. Pawar has been replaced by Desh Deepak Singh as Bareilly SDM, Dwivedi said.

#WATCH | Uttar Pradesh | Bareilly DM Shivakant Dwivedi says, “A video came to my notice in which a person was made to sit on the floor in a humiliating position in the office of SDM Udit Pawar. It was investigated and prima facie, negligence of Mirganj SDM Udit Pawar has been… pic.twitter.com/BrPENj7j2t

— ANI UP/Uttarakhand (@ANINewsUP) September 16, 2023

Meanwhile, SDM Pawar has denied the accusations, claiming that the complainant squatted “on his own”. “I did not ask any complainant to squat. The youth who came to my office squatted on his own as he entered my room. His friends took photographs and made videos, and then made those videos viral.”

“I assured them that the matter will be probed by the tehsildar, and action will be taken if any encroachment of cremation ground is found,” Pawar added.

However, the complainant has alleged that when he and some villagers asked the SDM to act on the alleged encroachment in Mandanpur village, Pawar got angry and insulted them and then asked one of them to squat as punishment.

Residents of Mandanpur village said that the cremation ground has been encroached by some Muslims.

The only other alternative to the cremation ground is to perform last rites on the banks of Ramganga river, they said. But since the river is currently in spate, they cannot cremate their dead there, they added.

On Friday, villagers, including Ramkumar, Puranlal, Dharampal, Gedan Lal and Pappu Lodhi, gave a memorandum to SDM Pawar on the matter, to which they were told that action will be taken on the basis of a report by tehsildar.

Lodhi said that when they complained about the delay in taking any action on the matter, the SDM got angry, asked the villagers to leave the room and told one of him to squat.

Akhilesh slams ‘monopoly rule’ in Uttar Pradesh

Reacting to the incident, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav hit out at the “autocratic bureaucracy under the monopoly rule in Uttar Pradesh”.

In a post on X (in Hindi) Yadav said, “Fact: This is the real face of the autocratic bureaucracy under the monopoly rule in Uttar Pradesh and a true picture of the official-government atrocities being committed on the weak and vulnerable people of Uttar Pradesh.”

“Theory: Dictatorship comes from the top to down and becomes a part of the behaviour of officials from the national capital to the state capital,” he said.

“Expectation: The government should take suo motu cognizance and suspend the officer and conduct an inquiry or the court should take suo motu cognizance of it,” Yadav said.

The SP chief also made a remark on the colour of the clothes the complainant was wearing.

“WARNING: Before making the complainant squat (fariyadi ko murga banane se pehle), the officer should have paid attention to the ‘colour’ of his clothes. Don’t know if the BJP government makes the official stand in the ‘very specific punitive body posture’ (ati vishisht dandatmak sharirik mudra) for insulting a particular ‘colour’,” he said in the X post.

(With PTI inputs)