Senior J&K Cop Basant Rath 'Slaps' Civilian, Calls Him Idiot; Video Goes Viral

Srinagar: A video on social media purportedly showing J&K inspector general of police (traffic) Basant Rath slapping a person repeatedly and calling him an idiot has gone viral on social media.

The video shows Rath, who is not in uniform, calling an unidentified person an idiot and slapping him repeatedly, asking him to shut up.

Giving his side of the story, the IPS officer took to Twitter to say the 40-second video was part of a 25-odd minutes long conversation with the man, which led to the scuffle. The police officer said the man’s friends created a scene, which then triggered the fight.

“Friends, there is no question of me doing something that would make me lose the kind of affection I've got in Jammu and Kashmir. This is the biggest achievement of my life. Life, not career,” Rath said on Twitter.

“The guy posed to be a medical student from Delhi spending his vacation in Srinagar. He asked me a lot of questions that were political in nature. I trusted him as a friend. And my answers were honest and politically incorrect,” the IPS officer said.

He added, “Ten odd minutes into our conversation, I realised that a couple of his friends were recording our conversation. When I asked them to stop it and delete the videos, they created a scene. That triggered the scuffle.”

Rath said the incident was over two months old and he would “regret my choice to engage with the guy that afternoon for a pretty long time”.

No complaint has been filed in the matter, police said.

The video, however, angered netizens who demanded action against the officer.