A screenshot of CM Hemant Soren’s tweet on Wednesday

Chief minister Hemant Soren on Wednesday instructed Dhanbad DC Amit Kumar and Dhanbad police through a tweet to take action against a police officer who took bribes from two women in exchange for settling a dispute.

Dhanbad police immediately suspended the accused, Lalan Prasad, in-charge of Alakdiha police outpost.

Hemant got to know about the policeman taking a bribe from a one-minute video that Dhanbad resident Dhananjay Mandal uploaded on Wednesday 8.35am on Twitter, tagging it to the CM’s Twitter handle.

The video showed cop Lalan Prasad taking a bribe worth Rs 5,000 each from two women of Alakdiha police station area, Usha Devi and Piyariya Devi, to mediate a dispute. The clip showed the policeman purportedly demanding another Rs 5,000 from each of them.

Mandal also wrote a message explaining what was going on in the clip.

At 11.22am, Hemant tweeted to Dhanbad DC Kumar and Dhanbad police ordering quick action against the corrupt cop. He added that police stations should not become dhan ugahi ka adda (dens of minting money)”.

Hemant added that it was indeed unfortunate that such complaints were coming to him with unfailing regularity and advised bureaucrats to take the matter seriously.

Talking to The Telegraph, Coal Belt DIG Prabhat Kumar said: “We have immediately suspended the accused officer and simultaneously started departmental proceedings for action against him which will be completed after a thorough investigation into the matter.”

A police source said Usha Devi, wife a contract worker in Alakdiha had a personal dispute against her neighbour Piyariya Devi and her family. Usha filed a complaint against Piyariya and her family with Alakdiha police. Here, OC Lalan Prasad asked Piyariya to submit a counter-complaint against Usha and then started asking them both to pay him money, saying he would settling their dispute.

This was the second complaint of a bribe-taking cop that Hemant received in the space of a month. On January 8, the same Mandal made a video of a coal smuggler who was allowed to leave with his stolen haul on a two-wheeler only after paying money to a home guard jawan, Bhagwan Singh. Singh worked as a driver of Jorapokhar OC Satyendra Kumar. On January 9, Hemant had instructed Dhanbad DC and police to take action against the home guard jawan, who was removed from his job after a probe against him by a two-member committee of ADM and DSP (law and order) Anil Kumar and Mukesh Kumar.

The CM at 11.52am also instructed Bokaro DC Mukesh Kumar to take action on an appeal for medical treatment of Bokaro resident Rahul Bhatt on reading a tweet by Bokaro resident Anup Kumar Singh.