UP cop in soup after video of him touching Shivpal Yadav's feet goes viral

A police officer is facing action after a video showing him touching the feet of politician Shivpal Singh Yadav has gone viral on social media. 

On Sunday evening, a video showing Anjani Kumar Chaturvedi, a circle officer in Rae Bareli, in his police uniform touching the feet of Yadav, started doing the rounds of social media. The 14-second video shows Yadav, the younger brother of former UP chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav alighting from a white SUV. An officer—allegedly Chaturvedi—opens the door of the car and swiftly touches Yadav’s feet as chants of ‘Zindabad, Zindabad’ go up. 

It is not yet clear who shot the video.

The incident took place at Rai Bareli’s Saras intersection when Yadav was on his way from Lucknow to Prayagraj. After being ejected from the Samajwadi Party by his nephew Akhilesh Yadav, Shivpal Singh formed his own party called the Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party. Though there has been the occasional sign of a thaw, relations between the two remain choppy. 

By late Sunday night, the media cell of Rae Bareli police had also issued a statement saying that an inquiry into the act had been handed over to the district’s Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) and that in the interim, the officer had been removed from his post. 

This is not a unique incident in the state. In 2014, a senior police official was photographed touching the feet of Samajwadi Party senior leader Ramgopal Yadav when his party was in power in the state. In 2017, another officer was caught on video doing the same with BJP MLA Sangeet Som. 

The incident is not limited to Uttar Pradesh either. In August 2019, a police officer in West Bengal was pictured doing the same with chief minister Mamta Banerjee.