‘This Machine Shows You’re Bangladeshi’: UP Cop’s ‘Scanning’ Video In Ghaziabad Goes Viral

The Uttar Pradesh Police have come under fresh criticism after a police officer was seen “scanning” the people with a mobile phone to determine their citizenship, like a barcode scanner.

While official documents like passports or Aadhaar are used to determine citizenship, UP officer Ajay Sharma was the centre of a bizarre video where he was seen using a “machine” that he claimed revealed the people’s country of origin.

“Put the machine on the person’s back. This machine is showing that you are from Bangladesh,” he was heard saying in a viral video to a man, who was pleading that he is originally from Bihar.

The video was reportedly taken on December 23. News18 did not independently confirm the authenticity of the video. Sources told NDTV that senior

officials have taken note of the viral video, although police have yet to officially confirm this.

“Put the machine on the person’s back. This machine shows you are from Bagladesh”

UP Police in Ghaziabad is roaming around with a “machine” that can detect your nationality. Here the cop could be seen putting a mobile on a person’s back. “This show you are from Bangladesh,” cop… pic.twitter.com/VtFURMx1NR

— Piyush Rai (@Benarasiyaa) January 1, 2026

“In the series of efforts for crime control, the process of interrogation/verification of suspicious persons in temporary settlements/slums is conducted from time to time. In the same series, interrogation/verification proceedings were carried out by the Kaushambi police, in which documents of people were examined for truth verification,” said the Police Commissionerate in Ghaziabad in response to the video.

The viral video resulted in a flood of memes and jokes on the cop’s actions as people demanded more details on the “mysterious” machine that could be used to declare a person a foreigner.

“Can this machine also tell corruption done by police personals during their tenure?” a user quipped. Another person said, “If this is true it shows the sheer lack of professionalism and stupidity of the police who are doing this.”

“And how did you get a machine which detects a person Nationality just by touching the body. We need to give the Science Nobel Prize to the Indian who made this kind of advanced machine,” an individual commented.

This came after the Ghaziabad Police and the CRPF conducted search operations in Ghaziabad to look for illegal immigrants. They checked identity cards and questioned suspicious people in the slums.