Rohtas superintendent of police Vikas Barman (centre) performs on the stage on Saturday. Picture by Sanjay Choudhary

Patna, May 12: A cop in real life, IPS officer Vikas Barman was last evening equally comfortable on the stage as a superintendent of police.

A 2008-batch IPS officer, Barman performed the role of the superintendent of police (SP) at a stage show organised by the Rohtas district police in Maoist-hit Tardih village under the jurisdiction of the Rohtas police station, around 210km west from here.

Five male artistes and a woman from Bengal and Jharkhand staged the play Bhatke Rahee (misguided travellers) under the banner of “Indra Dhanush”, a Calcutta-based organisation. Barman also acted in it during his first visit to a Maoist-hit area after assuming charge as the SP of Rohtas on March 20.

Around 2,000-semi clad audience hailing from half-a-dozen villages, including Budhwa, Budhwakala, Dhansa, Pipradih and Soli, on the Kaimur hills were surprised to see the young officer in the new role in the play written by Anupam Goswami. For a moment, they could not believe that the man in uniform on the stage was their new district police chief.

The man donning khakhi delivered sermons on the futility of taking up arms. The stage show ended with showing a new path to misguided youths, who had joined the banned outfit. “I decided to start my work from this village because it was earlier a den of the Maoists. Instead of launching an operation, I opted to start work with community policing. I have come here to appeal the misguided youth to join the mainstream of the society and avail the benefits of the government policy,” Barman said.

The Don Bosco, Patna, alumnus also warned of stern action against those trying to vitiate the atmosphere in the remote areas of the district, sharing borders with Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh.

Sharing his new experience after his maiden stage show, Barman said: “It gave me an opportunity to directly interact with the people. Stage shows help you communicate with the audience in a better way. That is why I decided to seek the help of the stage artistes and organised the show. I wanted to play a different role but the stage artistes suggested me to act as a cop.”