Representative image of a police officer.
Credit: iStock Photo
In an incident reflecting the style of functioning of the Uttar Pradesh police, two cops allegedly planted a country-made pistol on the bike of a teacher and later arrested him on charges of arms smuggling after the pistol was recovered from the bike in the state's Meerut town.
The deeds of the cops were caught on CCTV leaving the state police in red. Two cops were later suspended and the teacher was released but not before he and his family spent an entire night at the police station, pleading with the police to let the man go.
A senior police official said in Meerut that a probe was launched into the matter. ''We have asked the family to provide the CCTV footage... we will take action if it is verified,'' said the official.
The CCTV footage purportedly showed two cops near the bike of the teacher and later one of them was seen planting something in the bike. A little later the same pair of cops was seen taking out something from the same bike, which turned out to be a pistol.
The cops then took away the teacher to the police station with the 'recovered' pistol and charged him with arms smuggling. The police registered a case even after the CCTV footage went viral on social media platforms.
The family members alleged that they had a dispute over a piece of land with another resident of the locality and the police had sided with the other party and, on their direction, tried to implicate the teacher, identified as Ankit Tyagi, in a false case.
The family members on Thursday senior police officials in Meerut and demanded sacking of the cops.