Nagarathpet, where the incident took place, is located close to the Bengaluru civic body's headquarters.
Bengaluru's civic chief today apologised for an incident in which two boys were manhandled -- one of them badly beaten up -- by unknown persons for apparently refusing to get tested for COVID-19. The incident, a video of which has gone viral on social media and messaging platforms, has sparked outrage among citizens over the impunity and high-handedness of those who carried out the assault.
An FIR has been filed over the assault under multiple sections of the IPC, ANI reported.
"We regret the incident at Nagarathpet testing booth," Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Commissioner Gaurav Gupta tweeted today, referring to the locality in the heart of the city, close to the BBMP headquarters.
"There is no question of forceful testing. We condemn any physical altercation that has happened. Enquiry would be conducted to find out what led to this, who is responsible, and also to prevent any such recurrence," the civic chief said.
The undated video shows a handful of personnel at a Covid testing desk set up before a temple in Nagarathpet. Two of them are appear trying to verbally coerce a young boy into getting tested while he firmly refuses. Another boy is seen backing the first one and recording the proceedings using his phone.
Following their determined rebuttal, some of the officials begin to manhandle the boys and stop them from video-graphing the incident.
A few bystanders and passers-by try to intervene, but to no effect.
As one of the boys is cornered, the other is seen backing away a few feet followed by one of the personnel. Moments later, brute force is used by two officials to pull him back to the booth. He is held by the scruff of his neck, shoved, thrashed, and has his arm twisted.
He falls down, but is dragged up and his face shoved down to the table. By then, some more people are seen intervening to stop the outrage.
Bengaluru city yesterday recorded almost 7,500 new Covid cases, taking its overall infection count to 11,19,552. It also registered 362 Covid-related deaths, putting the city's overall fatalities at 11,216.