Kids detained for 6 hours after ball hits IG

Not child's play

Playing cricket put a group of children in a tough spot after the ball hit an IPS officer, leading to their six-hour detention in a police station.

The incident took place in Uttar Pradesh’s Moradabad town, about 350 km from here. According to sources here, the children were let off only after the local media reached the police station after learning about the incident, which occurred on Saturday.

Sources said children often played games at the Police Training School ground in the Civil Lines area. On Saturday, a group of children were playing cricket.

 Inspector General B R Meena, who is posted at the training school, was passing by when the ball hit him.

The IG became so angry that he ordered his subordinates to take the children to the local police station and take stern action against them, sources said. 

Some of the children succeeded in dodging the cops and fled from the spot while some others were caught by the police and taken to the Civil Lines police station.

 The terrified children kept pleading the policemen to let them go but to no avail.They were detained in the station for six hours. Their parents rushed and begged the cops for mercy. But the policemen were unmoved.

Sources said the IG wanted the children to be arrested but the cops at the police station could not do so as all of them were minors.

As the local media reached the police station, the cops got the parents to give a written undertaking that their children would not use the ground in future and allowed them to go, sources said.

District police officials said the children were only counselled and not detained.