Police, SDM celebrate Diwali with family of cracker seller detained & later released

Nov 14, 2020

Bulandshahr (Uttar Pradesh) [India], November 14 : The Bulandshahr police and district administration officials, led by Khurja sub-divisional magistrate, celebrated Diwali on Saturday with a firecracker seller, who was detained and later released, and his family, in the Uttar Pradesh city.
The police and SDM chose to celebrate Diwali with this firecracker seller despite six detentions in Bulandshahr on a humanitarian ground after a video of his daughter Dimpy purportedly pleading in front of them to leave him went viral.
"We didn't want the child to harbour feelings of resentment towards police. So we thought of this humanitarian gesture. We also want to send the message that Diwali can be celebrated with family without bursting crackers," said SDM of Khurja, Lavi Tripathi.
"I am happy now," said Dimpy.
The National Green Tribunal has banned the sale of firecrackers in the Delhi-NCR area. Despite this, some shopkeepers in Bulandshahr were openly selling firecrackers. While taking action in the matter, Khurja police detained at least six shopkeepers and seized the firecrackers. But one of the shopkeepers' daughter kept pleading in front of the police to leave her father, crying and hitting her head on their vehicle.
"We saw the video, where the girl was seen crying and hitting the police vehicle, pleading the policemen to leave her father. In this situation, a humanitarian act was expected from the police personnel, but nothing of the sort could be seen in the video. Senior officers were unhappy with the behaviour of the police personnel towards the girl during the incident, even as we released her father after a couple of hours," said Circle Officer Suresh Kumar.