Two GRP personnel were placed under suspension for allegedly thrashing a television journalist after an argument with him when he was covering the derailment of a goods train in Shamli, officials said on Wednesday. Director General of Uttar Pradesh Police OP Singh ordered that Government Railway Police's Shamli Station House Officer Rakesh Kumar and constable Sanjay Pawar be placed under suspension, the state police tweeted on Wednesday morning. The journalist, Amit Sharma stated, “I was locked up, stripped and they urinated upon right into my mouth.”

#WATCH Shamli: GRP personnel thrash a journalist who was covering the goods train derailment near Dhimanpura tonight. He says, "They were in plain clothes. One hit my camera&it fell down. When I picked it up they hit&abused me. I was locked up, stripped&they urinated in my mouth" pic.twitter.com/nS4hiyFF1G

— ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) June 11, 2019

A senior UP government official, quoting Shamli Senior Superintendent of Police Ajay Kumar Pandey, said the action was taken after the two GRP personnel thrashed Amit Sharma. In a purported video of the incident which went viral on social media late last night, the accused GRP personnel, in plain clothes, can be seen repeatedly slapping and punching Sharma. Subsequently, the GRP personnel detained him. "The incident took place when the journalist had gone to cover the derailment of a few bogies of a goods trains in Shamli. There was a heated exchange of words among them and hurling of abuses," said Ram Lakhan Mishra, the Circle Officer, GRP, Saharanpur.