Bihar cop suspended over AK-47: When can police use such weapons, what are the rules for protests

A video of the policeman firing the AK-47 had surfaced, prompting questions. The Bihar Police has suspended Siwan constable Abhishek Kumar for firing four rounds into the air with his AK-47 during Saturday’s (July 25) protest. But the big question remains: can police use sophisticated weapons during bandhs and protests? Though there is no uniform central law on this — with law and order being a state subject—provisions in the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (BNSS), and state police manuals throw some light on the issue.What does the Bihar Police Manual say? Under the Bihar Police Manual, the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for law enforcement, and relevant directives from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), the deployment and firing of automatic