Patna, Sept. 13: A policeman was suspended today in Munger, around 200km from here, for allegedly taking a youth to a hospital on a cycle rickshaw by grabbing his hair.

Munger superintendent of police P. Kannan said: “Action has been taken against havildar Ambika Prasad of Kotwali police station for indecently behaving with the man.”

Deputy superintendent of police (headquarters) Kundan Kumar Sinha said the youth, identified as Mohammed Afroz, was taken into custody yesterday after he had created chaos near the bus stand and picked up a fight with traffic policemen. The youth was carrying a country-made pistol with him and terrorising passers-by in an inebriated state.

He was thrashed by some local residents when he tried to misbehave with them and suffered injuries. But traffic policemen intervened and rescued him from the clutches of the angry residents.

“Afroz was overpowered by the cops and taken to the hospital. He, however, tried to misbehave with the policeman escorting him on the rickshaw. To thwart his attempts to escape, Prasad caught the youth by his hair. Obviously, the policeman’s action should not be appreciated,” Sinha said.

The incident has caused much discomfiture to the top police brass. “Such an indecent behaviour is not expected from any man in uniform. It doesn’t matter whether he is a criminal or a common citizen — everybody has the right to lead life with dignity,” said a senior officer at the police headquarters in Patna.

He added that DGP Abhayanand had repeatedly asked the men in khaki to behave properly with the people visiting the police station and they should never act in an indecent way in the public.

Local people said Afroz, a resident of Ghasiyar locality of Munger, is an orphan and he used to terrorise them on one pretext or the other.

“Nobody even uttered a word in favour of Afroz when a police team visited the locality to investigate his antecedents,” another police officer said.