The above pictures that have been going viral on all the major social media platforms since this morning are from Jaljala Chawk, Biratnagar. A traffic cop can be clearly seen to be mercilessly hitting a rickshaw puller, while the people around them are witnessing the incident without anyone trying to stop the cop from doing so. We are not quite sure what the rickshaw puller had done to be beaten so badly in public, but whatever it was, it should have been processed in a legal way.

First things first, these are the duties and responsibilities of a traffic cop:

• Managing incidents that do not involve loss of life, injury or potential criminal activity.
• Supporting the police when they are managing incidents, particularly in managing traffic.
• Dealing with accident damaged, broken down and abandoned vehicles.
• Providing rolling road closures to hold traffic back to allow removal of debris, installation of temporary traffic management and other purposes.
• Providing temporary road closures.
• Clearing debris, animals and found property from the network
• Identification of defects and potential improvements to the network.
• Monitoring roadworks.
• Planning arrangements for forthcoming special events.
• Educating road users.

These look pretty clear to us and we don’t see a point which states, “Beating the hell out of a road user”, do you? So, this incident is not only unethical but illegal as well. This ‘wanna be Nikhil Uprety’ not only needs to be educated on what his duties are but a strict action needs to be taken against him. Nobody, just nobody, is above the law. Chetana bhaya!