An irate police in UP's Saharanpur town adopted a novel technique to name and shame a bookie evading capture, but the move seem to have backfired.
They painted "House of thief" on the walls of the absconding bookie's residents, but its occupants took objection.
Cracking down on the town's cricket betting syndicate a few days back, police arrested three people, but two of them managed to escape. On Thursday, they raided the house in Numaish Camp but had no clue on the fugitives.
It is said that the angry cops then painted the words "'chor ka ghar' " in Hindi on the front wall, though district police claimed that it could be the handiwork of the bookie's family to tarnish the reputation of the law enforcers.
Occupants of the house, however, accuse the police of also painting the same words on the car owned by the local punter.
Accompanied by local residents, occupants of the bookie's house demonstrated before the residence of the district police chief against the shaming attempt.
They also vowed to meet the MP for the constituency and demand action against the cops who did the paint job.