Stand-up comedian Sundeep Sharma.
Credit: X/@sundeepshawarma
Noida: A stand-up comedian on Monday claimed that his car was stopped on the middle of a road by a gun-wielding man at night but later told the police it "could have been a mobile phone" not a firearm, officials said.
The comedian had taken to social media to make the claim around 1 am on Monday, less than an hour after the alleged incident.
Later in the day, the police said that it launched an investigation into the matter and contacted the comedian for details.
The police in a statement said that it talked to Sundeep Sharma, who does comedy show programmes, "regarding the alleged incident" during the investigation.
On the intervening night of Sunday and Monday, the comedian was going to Gurugram after a show at Sector-104, Noida, police said.
As soon as he crossed Hajipur underpass and while taking a U turn from the roundabout, he saw a person who looked like a business man wearing a suit and boots, they said.
"This man was holding a mobile in his hand and suddenly he came in front of my car on the road. Due to which my friend, who was driving, got scared and stopped the car. When the person made eye contact with us, he smiled and moved aside and signaled us to go ahead," police said quoting the comedian's statement.
There was another car coming behind Sharma's which stopped along with theirs and even after they got out, that car remained standing there, after that he did not know where that person and the car went, they said.
"During the police investigation, Sandeep Sharma said about the 'gun' that he could not see it properly in hurry and the man might have a mobile in his hand," police said.
Earlier in the day, Sharma posted from his unverified X account about the incident, claiming that a gun-wielding man had stopped his car on a city road in the middle of the night.
"So we were at gun point in the middle of a secluded road in Noida Sec 104. After the show me and @comicsaurabh were returning and a man stood in the middle of the dark road holding a gun in his hand," Sharma posted on X.
"The man approached the car, I aggressively shouted while holding my mobile phone, which I thought was also a potential self defence weapon in the situation, he looked at us went to the side of the road and signalled us to go, all this while smiling. We left from there alive, this," he said in another post.
The comedian also urged the police to take note of the incident and initiate further action.