The police constable near Biscomaun Bhavan in Patna on Sunday. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

A police constable on Sunday fell prey to Bihar’s lynch-mob mentality for allegedly letting a biker who rammed his bike into an SUV go scot free after he allegedly paid a bribe.

Eyewitnesses said the youth rammed the bike into the SUV near Biscomaun Bhavan in the heart of the city around 11.30am, sparking off an altercation with its driver, Mohammad Saddam.

Pawan Kumar, a member of the quick mobile team, arrived at the place on spotting a crowd and saw the two men engaged in a scuffle in the middle of the road.

Pawan took the biker aside, into a nearby lane, before letting him go. The constable then came back and blamed the SUV driver for the accident.

Local vendors and shopkeepers, who nursed a grouse against the police, immediately intervened and lent support to the SUV driver, Saddam.

They suddenly began assaulting the constable after charging him with accepting a bribe from the biker to let him go scot-free.

Police personnel rushed to the spot from Gandhi Maidan police station to save their colleague. The SUV driver was detained for interrogation.

Baliram Choudhary, the deputy superintendent, town, said the allegations against the constable were being verified. “Efforts are on to ascertain the identity of the people who assaulted the constable,” he said.

Pawan, however, denied he had taken a bribe and claimed he had intervened on spotting a brawl.

“Being a policeman, I rushed to the spot to inquire into the matter. Some people got agitated after I let the biker go in order to defuse the situation,” he said.

Pawan is a member of the quick mobile team, which is assigned to patrol lanes and bylanes of the city.