Bareilly (Uttar Pradesh), May 17 (IANS): Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav tweeted the video clip of a 12-year-old boy from Bareilly who was allegedly thrashed by the police in the Baradari area of the city while he was selling fruits on a cart on Saturday.

Hours after the tweet went viral, Additional Superintendent of Police(city) was asked to conduct a departmental inquiry into the incident.

In the video, the boy could be seen crying uncontrollably and showing his swollen hand. He said that two policemen had beaten him with a stick.

The incident was reported from the Sindhunagar locality under the Baradari police station.

The boy's father sells vegetables outside his house and the son, often joins him at work.

Harsh Gupta, the 12-year-old boy, said, "My father went for a bath. So, I was selling fruits in his absence. As I was talking to a customer, two policemen arrived on a bike. They then started hurling abuses at me and beat me with a stick."

Harsh's father Umesh said, "The government has allowed selling of vegetables and fruits during the lockdown, but the policemen keep harassing us. A few days ago, I was also assaulted by local police outpost in-charge. Today, after seeing my son facing a similar harassment, I have made an official complaint on dial 112."

Bareilly SSP Shailesh Pandey said that prima facie it seems to be an 'accident' as the police were trying to reprimand the crowd for not following social distancing norms and the boy was probably hit.

He said that the boy was taken to a hospital and there was minor injury on his hand.

Sources said both the policemen, guilty of beating the boy, belong to 2018 batch and they told their seniors that they were only acting on a complaint that several people have gathered in the area and were not following the lockdown guidelines.