A civic volunteer of Kolkata Police was demobilised after he was seen kicking a suspected snatcher and pressing his foot on the chest of the accused in a purported video, a senior officer said on Monday. The incident that happened on Sunday evening in Rabindra Sadan area in the city drew condemnation from all walks of life and evoked memories of the 2020 killing of African American George Floyd by a policeman in the US.

Kolkata Police Commissioner Soumen Mitra also criticised the incident and ordered a probe into it. "This is an unfortunate incident. We condemn this and have demobilised the civic volunteer concerned.

"We train them constantly but somehow this has happened. An inquiry has already been initiated," Mitra told PTI. The pickpocket was caught by passengers of a bus while he was allegedly trying to snatch purse of a woman near the city's Rabindra Sadan crossing and handed over to the police.

The civic volunteer, when contacted, said he kicked the man accused of pickpocketing to stop him from fleeing the spot. "It was unintentional. He was trying to escape and I had put my foot on his chest to stop him. I am sorry for my actions," the civic volunteer said.

Floyd was killed in a brutal abuse of the police force on May 25 last year during an arrest after a store clerk alleged that he had passed a counterfeit USD 20 bill in Minneapolis in the US. A policeman pinned down Floyd with his knee on the pavement of a south Minneapolis intersection for more than nine minutes. The death of the man resulted in violent protests in the US.

Former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin was sentenced to 22 years and six months in prison for the murder of George Floyd.