One may have heard about gunning down of criminals in armed encounters with the police but the cops in Uttar Pradesh performed the act not with guns but with sound.
Already facing flak over a series of encounters, the UP Police made a mockery of themselves, when a constable sought to fire at a criminal by trying to emit the sound of gunfire in state's Sambhal district, about 450 km from here, after his pistol got jammed.
The matter came to light, when a video showing the cop shouting 'thain-thain' (mimicking the sound of the firing of a bullet) in a dense forest, went viral on the social networking sites.
According to sources, the police had cornered an alleged dreaded criminal in a dense forest in the district on Saturday. While chasing the criminal, who carried a reward of Rs 25,000 on his head, one of the cops tried to fire at him but his pistol got jammed.
The criminal had jumped a police barrier after being signaled to stop.
Apparently panicked as the criminal had a pistol in his hand, the cop started mimicking the sound of gunfire to scare off the criminal. The cop could be heard shouting 'thain-thain' in the video.
Fortunately, no harm came to the chasing cops and they were able to nab the criminal, sources said.
The police officials initially sought to justify emitting of the sound of gunfire by the cop saying that it was done to create "psychological pressure" on the criminal but later said that the sound was "accidentally" emitted by the cop.
Superintendent of Police Yamuna Prasad said the cops would be given training as to how to re-start a pistol when it was jammed.
The UP Police has been under attack over a series of encounters in different parts of the state in the past few months. An Apple executive was recently shot dead by a cop when the former did not stop his vehicle after being signaled to stop in the state capital.
