Officials of the Bengaluru civic body Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike
(BBMP) on Monday allegedly thrashed a teenager and forced him to undergo
a COVID-19 test.
A video of the incident has gone viral on social media. The incident took place near the
Dharmaraya Swamy Temple ward at the Chickpet constituency in the South Zone of
the city.

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In the purported video, the two staffers can be seen hitting a teenage boy and dragging him towards the makeshift sample
collection stall set up in front of the temple. When the boy tried to
escape, he was beaten up and even pushed under the table.

In another purported video shared by a Twitter user, the BBMP staff
were seen allegedly torturing another boy in the same area to give a sample for COVID-19
testing.

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After these videos went viral on social media and drew criticism
from all quarters, the civic body was forced to close down the testing
centre. The BBMP Chief Commissioner Gaurav Gupta took to Twitter to
condemn the alleged physical altercation by BBMP staff and said an enquiry will
be done into the matter.

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“We regret the incident at Nagratpet testing booth. There is
no question of forceful testing. We condemn any physical altercation that has
happened. An enquiry would be conducted to find out what led to this, who is
responsible, and also to prevent any such recurrence,” he tweeted.

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Meanwhile, the Bengaluru Central Division Police registered
a suo moto case into the incident and filed an FIR against a BBMP booth level
officer.