As India battles to contain the coronavirus outbreak, police surprising an elderly man in Haryana on his birthday is just the heartwarming news people want to hear about. However, not all senior citizens are being treated the same in the country.
Police from Panchkula city in the Indian state of Haryana surprised an elderly man with a birthday cake upon the request of his children. A clip of the heartwarming moment was shared by policeman Arun Bothra, @arunbothra, on Twitter with the caption: “When the cops came to visit. Must watch.”
The video shows a team of police personnel paying a surprise visit to the elderly man on his birthday. The police officials sang ‘Happy Birthday’ and presented him with a cake. Moved with the sweet gesture, the man is seen crying.
"My children live abroad, I stay alone," the man can be heard saying.
The police officials comfort him saying that they are also part of his family, and insist him to cut the cake.
"Thank you. You made my day," the man says, while wearing a birthday cap brought by the cops.
One of the policewomen then tells the man that it was his children who arranged the surprise. Immediately the man starts crying and says: “Tell me the truth.”
To which the cop replies: “We are telling you the truth, they told us that it was your birthday.”
Social media users commented on the police's effort and the man's emotional reaction.
Tweep @swatic12 wrote: "This legit made me cry."
Twitter user @Nielesh_Joshi thought that such moves will help ease the relationship between authorities and the public amidst the time of crisis: "Heart melting, wonderful gesture from Police, I m pretty sure with such gestures the gap/fear between Police and common people will reduce drastically."
Villagers try to stop cremation
In a separate incident, villagers in the same state clashed with the police and threw stones at doctors as they protested the cremation of an elderly COVID-19 suspect.
On Monday, the woman, in her early 60s, died due to an illness at Ambala’s civil hospital.
When police brought her body to the cremation ground, the residents of Chandpura village threw stones at the cops and doctors.
The video of the incident was shared on Twitter.
Police had to open fire in the air to disperse the unruly mob, reported NDTV, India-based television news channel.
The cremation was carried out after the crowd was dispersed.
A doctor said that the coronavirus test result of the woman is awaited.
"The woman had asthma and on Monday afternoon she started facing difficulty in maintaining oxygen saturation. She died while undergoing treatment. We collected her samples for COVID-19 testing and after following the due procedure and SOPs [Standard operating procedures] we released her body for the cremation at a designated place to the district administration," civil surgeon Dr Kuldeep Singh told NDTV.
"The villagers unnecessarily opposed the cremation," Dr Singh added.
"We attempted to pacify them while informing that all the safety measures are being adopted, but they did not listen. Soon, they started throwing stones at doctors and policemen. They also damaged an ambulance. We had to use some force to disperse the crowd," an Ambala police official said.
A case will be filed against the residents for violating the lockdown and attacking the police and doctors, as per news reports.
Currently, there are 12 confirmed coronavirus cases in Ambala. Haryana has 296 cases with 3 deaths, according to local news outlets.
