Watch: Police rifles fail to fire at gun salute to former Bihar CM Jagannath Mishra

Patna, Aug 22: Bihar Police faced embarrassment on Wednesday when none of the 21 guns could fire a single shot during the funeral of former Bihar chief minister Jagannath Mishra at his paternal village Balua Ghat in Supaul.

Mishra, who was three-time Bihar chief minister between 1975 and 1990, died on Monday.

Local news channels began beaming video footage of the embarrassing spectacle. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi and DGP Gupteshwar Pandey were present on the occasion.

The video shows a senior official hastily testing guns of a couple of police personnel, trying to test whether the weapons had any life left by pulling the trigger, only to resign himself to the anticlimax.

The episode, which took place in the presence of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and many other dignitaries, has raised hackles at the police headquarters here.

Supaul SP Mrityunjay Choudhary said, "Those responsible for the lapse would face action."

DGP Pandey left the spot without taking questions.

"This is a serious lapse. It was imperative to ensure that the guns were functional and the cartridges used therein were usable. We have sought an explanation from the district police of Supaul in this regard," a senior official said here on the condition of anonymity. This is the first such incident in public memory when all the 21 guns did not fire during the final salute.