The murder of an Assistant Sub-Inspector of police and a contractor in Vaishali district on Saturday, after a series of sensational killings of engineers in the State, has sent shivers down the spine of the people who have serious apprehension of a return of jungle raj in Bihar.
The bullet-riddled body of Ashok Kumar Rai, the ASI, was discovered on Saturday near Manua village in lalganj, near Hajipur where Rai was posted. Unofficial reports said he was shot four times by a service revolver but could not be ascertained if the revolver with which he was shot dead belonged to his own or someone else’s. The police said Rai was on night patrolling but did not return to the base.
In the other incident, sand contractor Himanshu Kumar was gunned down allegedly by unknown persons and his body was found from near Bidupur bazar Saturday morning. The SP said investigation is on.
The murder of the ASI took place almost a fortnight after the broad daylight killing of two engineers working with a private company engaged in road construction in Darbhanga and a few days later another engineer working with Reliance company in Vaishali district.
These murders apart from other criminal incidents gave enough ammo to the opposition which fired salvo at the Nitish Kumar led Government which also included RJD and Congress. Hindustani Awam Morcha of Jitan Ram Manjhi has called for state wide protest against the crime and other issues from January 12. Commenting on the murder of ASI, Manjhi said it was a horrible situation as the men in khaki supposed to provide protection to the people were no longer safe. “There is a high increase in the cases of murder, abduction, rape and loot and those on the target of the criminals are engineers, doctors and police. I have warned that the formation of the Maha gathbandhan Government would begin a new era of crime. I am proved right and people are now lamenting their decision (of supporting Maha gathbandhan),” said the former Chief Minister.
Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said the Jungel Raj has returned in Bihar. “The string of such killings showed that Jungle Raj is back and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is helpless,” said Paswan and showed concern that many such incidents were being reported from Vaishali district which has three Ministers in State Government including both sons of RJD boss lalu Prasad one of them is deputy CM. “What will happen to thesecurity of people when the police are not safe in Bihar. Why the Chief Minister is so helpless and silent on all this,” Paswan, who is an MP from Hajipur, said. He is visiting Vaishali on Monday to take stock of the situation.
State BJP president Mangal Pandey alleged that during the last 60 days, 585 murders have been reported. He also pointed the increase of the theft of priceless idols of deities from different temples. “Entire Bihar is reeling under fear of unabated criminal incidences. Extortion is at the zenith and the extortionists openly flout their political clout,” said Pandey.
Senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi said despite the warning by lalu Prasad, the government has not been able to control crime and check criminals. “The criminals gave a big challenge to Nitish Government,” he said and added that in the same Vaishali district some times back an ASI was lynched in lalganj and during election a police inspector was shot dead in Nitish’s district of Nalanda.The former Deputy CM said lalu being the larger partner of the government should break his silence and should tell the people how long they have to suffer and why the Government was not acting against criminals despite his observations.
The ASI was murdered only a day after the State Director General of Police (DGP) P K Thakur claimed on Friday that the law and order situation in Bihar was not alarming. He said compared to 2013 and 2014, crime graph came down in 2015. Dishing out the statistics, he said all types of crimes including murder, kidnapping and rape have been reported less in 2015 as compared to two corresponding years.