Bihar police in the dock over four deaths in two days

Bihar police in the dock over four deaths in two days
ARUN SRIVASTAVA

PATNA, AUGUST 19: Bihar's police force, which has been a silent witness to carnages over caste and has even been accused of conniving with killers, apparently doesn't think twice before opening fire to terrorise the common man. Four young lives have been lost over the past two days in Gopalganj and Jehanabad districts for no apparent reason and the police is now fumbling for an explanation following a public outcry.

On Thursday Anand Kumar, the only son of noted Hindi writer and JNU professor Manager Pandey, was shot dead in his home village of Laheri in Gopalganj district during an encounter with criminals in mysterious circumstances. And the next day, three students went missing at Bedauli High School in Paliganj, Jehanabad district, when a demonstration to protest against atrocities by the People's War Group (PWG) was disrupted by police firing. Their bodies were today fished out from the rivulet they had jumped into in panic, leading to widespread outrage.

A police picket at Imamganj was set ablaze today by angry students and villagers demanded a visit by Chief Minister Rabri Devi, official sources said. The agitators sprinkled kerosene on the picket and torched it after the policemen resorted to lathicharge and teargassing and fired in the air to stop the demonstration with the bodies of three students on the Jehanabad-Arwal road, the sources said. Eleven persons were taken into custody. Additional para-military personnel have been rushed to Imamganj and senior district officials are camping at the spot, the sources said.

They said the police took possession of the bodies of the students, identified as Santu Kumar, Prem Prakash and Shashi Kumar, but returned them after the villagers protested.

The PWG had on August 10 brutally assaulted a student, Ravindra Kumar, at its jana adalat held in the compound of Bedauli High School for alleged eve-teasing. He was also slapped with a fine of Rs 10,000. There were no policemen around to arrest the Naxalites.

But they were present in strength when the students of the local schools later took out a procession to protest against the terror tactics of the PWG. The policemen would have none of it and lathicharged them.

This infuriated the students, who were joined by their parents and other villagers on Friday at a protest rally. The police again rained lathi blows on the participants, about 600, and then fired at them.

Fleeing for their lives, some of the protestors jumped into a nearby rivulet. The three boys apparently never came out and their bodies were found today.

The CPI(M) Liberation and All India Students Association has alleged that the police assaulted one Sharwan Kumar who was trying to rescue the boys. They charged the police with arresting Kumar and implicating him in a false case. Students organisations have called for a Jehanabad bandh tomorrow.

A BJP fact-finding team, led by its general secretary Chandra Mohan Roy, has, however, alleged that the police picked up the three students, beat them up severely at the police station and then threw their lifeless bodies into the rivulet.

Meanwhile, a grieving Prof Pandey accused the police of having killed his son in cold blood on August 17. According to him, the Janata Bazaar outpost's police, led by P N Thakur, had gone to Laheri village in Gopalganj pursuing a gang of criminals around 6 pm. The moment the police entered the village, the criminals started firing on them.

The policemen took positions at the door of Prof Pandey's house in the village. His son, Anand Kumar, was standing near the door and requested them to move away, scared of being hit.

After an exchange of fire for about an hour, the criminals managed to escape. Constable Satish Kumar Singh and one Anil Kumar Barnwal received bullet injuries. Prof Pandey says the policemen, in a fit of impotent rage, took his son outside the village and shot him dead. The professor has alleged that a gold chain and two rings were removed by the police from the body.

The District Magistrate of Gopalganj has been entrusted by the ADM to inquire into the incident and submit his report within 15 days. The ADM has been asked to find out whether Anand Kumar was killed by the police or was hit by bullets fired by the criminals.

So far, the police have failed to come up with any explanation about the death of Anand Kumar. Popularly known as Bara Babu, he was much respected by the villagers, who today protested against his killing and demanded action against the policemen.

Intellectuals and writers today also staged a protest against the police in Patna, saying it had become a threat to law and peace. State CPI has demanded a probe into the incident.