The Bar Association of Hubballi has urged Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai to take action against police personnel for behaving in an uncivilised manner with one of its members who had hired an autorickshaw to visit a doctor for consultation.
In a letter written to the Home Minister, general secretary of Hubballi Bar Association Ashok Anvekar has said that the incident occurred when advocate R.Y. Joshi was returning home in the autorickshaw after consulting a doctor. The autorickshaw was stopped and the inspector on duty said that the autorickshaw was being seized as it had been found that autorickshaws were the reason for spread of COVID-19.
Although advocate Mr. Joshi conveyed to the police officer on duty that the auto driver had come on his request as he had to visit a doctor, the officer did not heed to him and instead, sent a police personnel on duty with Mr. Joshi in the same autorickshaw violating all COVID-19 guidelines to drop him home and then seize the vehicle.
Mr. Anvekar has said that while nobody would object to seizing vehicles for valid reasons, some police officials were behaving in an inhuman manner, especially with patients, and it was highly condemnable. The police official seems to have lost his sense to think about how patients who were unable to travel on their own for treatment should travel to see doctors. The Home Minister should immediately look into the issue and take action against the police official who had misbehaved and also violated COVID-19 norms, he has said in the letter.
