UP policemen don plastic stool, bamboo basket as riot gear

At a casual glance, the scene in a video from Magarwara area of Uttar Pradesh's Unnao district appears to have been taken straight from a Bollywood comedy movie, except that it was not reel but real.

A video which went viral on social media platforms showed at least two UP policemen with plastic stool on their head and basket made of bamboo sticks trying to tackle an unruly mob of people protesting against the death of two youths in a road accident.

The youths were knocked down by a speeding vehicle on Tuesday. A crowd of local people blocked the road in protest against the incident on Tuesday demanding compensation to the families of the deceased.

The video shows the crowd, including women, pelting stones at the cops during the protests.

Also read: 12 UP cops injured as protest over road crash death turns violent; 43 arrested

One of the cops had put a plastic stool over his head as a helmet while another held a basket made from bamboo in a bid to shield himself from the raining stones. Both of them, however, had lathis in their hands.

As the UP Police faced flak from different quarters, the in-charge of the local police station was suspended and a report had been sought from the district police chief in this regard, sources here said on Thursday.

Later, the UP Police tweeted that the district police chief had been asked to explain. ''An elaborate SOP & sufficient riot gear have been given to all districts to deal with any L&O situation. In an L&O situation in Unnao, despite Int. inputs, the force was ill-equipped for which the DGP has sought an explanation of the SP & at the local level SHO has been suspended,'' it said.

Earlier, the state police were trolled when a constable had mimicked the sound of fire by a bullet by shouting 'thain-thain' to scare the criminals after his pistol got jammed while he was chasing them.