Bihar authorities suspended a police constable after videos showed him firing at least three AK-47 rounds into the air while running toward student protesters in Siwan on Saturday. Police confirmed the footage, and a senior officer said no one was wounded. [1]
The suspension adds a police-accountability stage to a protest file that first produced Dharmendra Pradhan's submitted resignation without accepted reform or remedy, then Nandan Nilekani's task-force appointment without enacted safeguards or compensation receipts. Personnel concession, institutional design and police discipline remain separate.
Deputy inspector general Nilesh Kumar said the constable belonged to an intelligence unit dealing with dangerous criminals and had been issued the assault rifle for that work. Kumar said its use against students was wrong and unjustifiable. [1] His statement explains the immediate administrative response; it is not a completed investigative finding.
The video record answers several questions. A uniformed officer ran toward protesters, pointed the weapon and fired at least three shots in the air. Police authenticated the footage and identified the action as misuse. [1] It does not answer who ordered the deployment, what preceded the recorded segment or which formal rule the officer violated.
Nor does suspension equal final discipline. The fetched report does not provide the suspension instrument, the officer's name, pay status, duration, restrictions or inquiry terms. Kumar promised further action. A promise must still move through investigation, finding, charge, hearing, sanction and appeal.
The Siwan episode arose within nearly five weeks of youth protests triggered by leaked questions for a national medical entrance examination taken by more than 2 million students. Reuters reports that other grievances included unemployment and fear of AI-related job loss. [1] That broader movement explains the street; it does not excuse or prove any individual use of force.
Opposition leader Mallikarjun Kharge raised police treatment in Parliament. Supreme Court Justice Ujjal Bhuyan separately warned that space for dissent was shrinking and defended peaceful demonstration. [1] Those interventions add political and constitutional consequence, not a judicial ruling on the constable's conduct.
No verified X status was recovered. The circulating videos may have traveled through social media, but this article does not attach an unverified post or infer a platform consensus. The reliable chain is narrower: videos, police confirmation, official criticism and suspension.
Police said the rounds were fired into the air and no one was wounded. [1] That narrows the immediate injury record. It does not make the discharge safe or establish where every round landed. Scene evidence, ammunition accounting and witness statements would test the full physical consequence without converting a dangerous act into an invented casualty.
The exam overhaul and the force inquiry now run beside each other. Safer testing does not remedy rifle fire. Suspending one constable does not secure exam papers, compensate families or establish a general policing reform. Each institution owes its own operating records.
Monday's action is real but intermediate. Bihar removed the officer from duty after a visible act. Accountability will require custody of the original footage, witness and ballistic evidence, the applicable force rule, a reasoned finding and whatever discipline or remedy follows.
-- PRIYA SHARMA, Delhi