"Faced with a situation where the cops perceive threat to their lives from the mob, they can fire on the people in self-defence," he told reporters at Darbhanga after reviewing law and order situation with the police officials of ten districts in Darbhanga zone.
"When the crowd gets out of control so much so that the policemen perceive a threat to their lives or being killed, they don't require permission (of superiors) to shoot at the surging people and they can do so on their own in self-defence," Abhayanand said.
The law was the same for the people and the police as it was fair for a person to fire from a licenced weapon in the event of his own life comes under threat, the DGP said adding the same was applicable to the cops.
Abhayanand's remarks came in the backdrop of a series of incidents of rioting by the people.
The DGP had recently come under sharp attack from various quarters for his remarks that it was better to get the incidents of rioting by the crowd videographed than to take deterrent action against the people.
On the police firing at the Ashok Paper Mill in Darbhanga district recently in which one person was killed, he said a probe was going on into the incident.