Patna: A Siwan court on Thursday took cognisance of a video clip and ordered the superintendent of police (SP) to initiate strong disciplinary action against two district police officers for threatening to implicate a resident in a murder case if he did not pay Rs 40,000 bribe.

Siwan additional chief judicial magistrate Dhirendra Mishra issued the order after watching a 19-minute video clip of assistant sub-inspector Ramnath Das posted at Mahesh Nagar Town police station in which Das is seen demanding the bribe from the complainant Shams Tabrez.

Shams, a resident of Semri village in Siwan district around 135km north-east of Patna, also accused the station house officer (SHO) Arun Kumar Singh of being in cahoots with Das. The SHO denied the allegation and said he would find out the truth in the complaint against Das.

Shams's ordeal started on September 13 this year when he found a woman lying in a pool of blood on the road. "A big crowd had assembled on the spot but nobody came forward to get her admitted to the hospital. Taking pity on the injured, I took her in my car. She, however, died on way to the hospital," he recalled.

Later the victim's relatives, including Noman Ahmad alias Pappu, a close relative of block pramukh Razia Khatun, thrashed Shams and lodged a case with the Mahesh Nagar Town police station against Shams. Das was appointed investigating officer of the case.

Noman's driver Kamal Ram lodged another case with the SC/ST police station against Shams, and Das was assigned to investigate that case too.

Thereafter, Shams alleged, Das started demanding bribe from him and took Rs 10,000 from Shams's family members.

"I recorded the conversation of the police officer and produced it as evidence in the court," Shams said.

He said that the court has fixed November 27 as the next date of hearing .

Shams said he had also sent the video clip to senior police officials including the director-general of police, to the chairman of the state human rights commission and the national human rights commission.

When contacted, Siwan additional superintendent of police (ASP) Kartikey Sharma said he would look into the matter.

"I have not either received the order of the court nor the CD of the video. I will take action after going through the order of the court," the ASP said over phone on Friday.