The Station House Officer of Maker Police Station in Bihar’s Saran district has been suspended with immediate effect after a video purportedly showing him pointing his service pistol at people during flood-relief distribution circulated widely on social media.
Sangram Kumar Singh, a police sub-inspector serving as SHO of Maker, was placed under suspension by an order issued on 4 October 2026 by Saran Senior Superintendent of Police Roshan Kumar. The Saran SSP’s office said the video prima facie reflected “gross negligence of duty, indiscipline and arbitrariness.” During suspension he will be attached to the Saran Police Centre and will draw a subsistence allowance as per rules. An inquiry into the circumstances shown in the footage has been ordered.
The clip, recorded at Rewa Ghat in the Maker police-station area, shows relief material being distributed from pickup vehicles to a crowd of flood-affected people. Singh is seen standing on one of the vehicles as residents queue in front of it. When a person appears to pull a bag from the pickup, he jumps onto the vehicle, warns those present to stay back, and briefly draws his pistol and points it towards the group.
Local reports describe an argument between police personnel and residents after a commotion broke out among people gathered for the supplies.
The incident comes as Saran and adjoining districts remain under flood stress following heavy rainfall in Nepal and neighbouring areas in the last week of September. Official figures place the number of affected people at nearly 9.87 lakh across 169 gram panchayats in 30 blocks of six districts — Saran, West Champaran, East Champaran, Gopalganj, Darbhanga and Muzaffarpur. In Saran alone, flooding has disrupted road access to a large number of villages, prompting air-dropping of dry ration alongside ground distribution.
The pistol video surfaced days after a separate incident in the same district during an Indian Air Force helicopter relief sortie. On 2 October, Anil Kumar Singh, also known as Appu Singh, of Parshurampur died while residents were collecting packets dropped from a helicopter. Accounts differ: some residents said a relief bag struck him, while others suggested he may have suffered a heart attack when material landed nearby.
Police have said the cause of death will be established by post-mortem. A woman and children were also reported injured amid the rush to collect the packets. By 3 October, IAF helicopters had flown multiple sorties over the district, dropping several tonnes of dry ration where road access remained cut off.
Police have not released a detailed public account from the suspended officer. The departmental inquiry will examine the video and the circumstances of the relief distribution at Rewa Ghat.
