Police in Uttar Pradesh's Bareilly town, about 250 kilometres from here, were accused of ''hammering nails'' into the foot and hand of a youth for allegedly not wearing a mask.
The mother of the youth, a resident of Joginavada locality in the town, said that the cops had picked up her son on the night of Monday while he was sitting outside his home and took him to the police outpost saying that he had not worn a mask.
She said that she did not find her son at the police outpost when she reached there a little later. ''I was told that my son had been let go,'' she added.
The mother alleged that a few hours later she found her son lying in a semi-conscious state a few hundred metres away from the outpost with nails hammered into his foot and hand.
''The cops threatened to send my son to jail when I asked them about the nails,'' she said.
The police, however, rejected the allegations and said that the youth had himself hammered the nails into his foot and hand to avoid being arrested for not wearing a mask and misbehaving with the cops.
''A case was registered against him (youth) for not wearing mask and misbehaving with the cops,'' said a senior police official in Bareilly on Wednesday.
Earlier also there had been reports of police brutality over the people after they were caught roaming without wearing masks.