The high-profile kidnapping of a Gaya doctor and his businesswoman wife near Maoist-infested Barachatti in Gaya district has put the Nitish Kumar Government on the spot as the Opposition parties have heaped allegation of the jungle raj on it. Even after five days, the police have got little clue to the abduction which is believed to be for ransom and involvement of interstate gangs is not ruled out.
Dr Pankaj Kumar Gupta and Shubhra Gupta were travelling from Giridih in Jharkhand back to their home in Gaya in their Audi car last Friday when they were kidnapped in broad daylight. The family members were, however, yet to receive ransom call. The police have sent teams to Ranchi in Jharkhand and Kanpur and Gorakhpur in UP to secure clues of the kidnapping.
Kidnapping for ransom was the flourishing industry in Bihar in nineties up to 2004 during the regimes of lalu Prasad and Rabri Devi. Most of the kidnapped persons were doctors and professionals. The kidnappers allegedly enjoyed political patronage. It was in this backdrop that the Patna High Court once pulled up the then State Government calling it jungle raj.
The BJP, after the friendship between the JD(U) and the RJD, has been alleging that the new political alliance in Bihar symbolised return of jungle raj or the jungle raj 2. After this abduction, the party said, the horrible memories of those dark days have been refreshed in the minds of the people. It was during that period when many prominent doctors and entrepreneurs had migrated from Bihar. Since 2005 till recently, there had been no report of any high profile abduction in the State.
"We have taken this kidnapping as a big challenge and the police are working overtime to rescue the couple. Some teams have been sent and one should have faith in the police," said Nitish on Tuesday. He also met the relatives of the abducted couple in Gaya on Monday where the Opposition showed him black flags. "We have a policy of zero tolerance on such heinous crimes and there would be no change in it," the CM added.
Nitish's new critic and Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) leader Jitan Ram Manjhi alleged that with Nitish and lalu becoming friends crime graph was spiraling. HAM spokesman Rajib Ranjan MlA claimed a 62 per cent rise in the crime during the past four months since the talks began on alliance between the JD(U) and the RJD. He said during last four months as many as 1,560 incidents of kidnapping have been reported. "Some policemen, who had been deeply involved in kidnapping for ransom business earlier, have become active in their old business. The posting of police officials is now being made at the behest of lalu. The people are now living under constant fear after the revival of jungle raj," said Ranjan, the JD(U) MlA from Islampur.