A shocking video clip of a group of policemen mercilessly beating up a man at the newly inaugurated Atal Tunnel beneath the Rohtang Pass in Himachal Pradesh went viral on Sunday.
The police admitted that the incident involving the tourist and policemen was a result of an overtaking incident amid a massive traffic snarl in the tunnel on Saturday. The video was shot by a passerby.
In the clip, a constable can be seen beating the man with a stick. Many bystanders watch but no one intervenes. Another policeman joins in towards the end of the clip and beats the man again by kicking him on the face and slapping him.
Among the six security personnel involved, one allegedly belonged to the Border Roads Organisation.
Earlier, a case of hooliganism had come to light when a group of youngsters from Delhi stopped their three vehicles midway in the Atal Tunnel, a new tourist attraction where parking vehicles inside is an offence, and started clicking photographs, recording videos and dancing. This led to obstruction of traffic inside the tunnel.
The 9.2-km horseshoe-shaped single-tube, two-laned tunnel has shortened the distance between Manali and Keylong, the headquarters of Lahaul-Spiti, by 46 km and travel time by nearly three hours.
Meanwhile, the police evacuated a total of 82 stranded tourist vehicles, stranded due to heavy snowfall, from the south portal area of Atal tunnel near Dhundhi in Kullu district on Sunday. On Saturday night, the team had rescued over 300 tourists from the region.
Raman Gharsangi, Sub Divisional Magistrate (SDM) Manali had in a statement on Saturday said that efforts are being made to restore vehicular traffic and rescue stranded people.
The Meteorological Department on December 29 had issued a ‘yellow’ weather warning for heavy snowfall in Himachal Pradesh. The department issued a ‘yellow’ weather warning of heavy snowfall in mid and high hills on January 5 and thunderstorm and lightning in plains and low hills from January 3 to 5.