Within hours of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s claim that rule of law prevailed in Bihar and nobody would be spared if caught in illegal and criminal acts, a notorious gangster, Awadhesh Mandal, was freed by his supporters from the police station in Purnia soon after he was arrested for threatening a widow, whose husband was allegedly murdered by him. Police however, claimed that Mandal escaped from police station.
Mandal is husband of JD(U) MlA from Rupauli and a former Minister Bima Bharti. He is also head of Bhavanipur block. There is another report that he was released by the police from the Maranga police station.
The incident has further embarrassed Nitish Government which is already under attack from the opposition for continued cases of murder and deteriorating law and order situation.
Reports suggested that a big crowd of the supporters of the gangster, many of them JD(U) workers, stormed the police station and forcible freed him. His MlA wife Bharti and Purnia JD(U) MP Santosh Kushwaha were also present at the scene and played role in the release of Mandal, it is alleged.
Purnia SP Nishant Tiwary said Mandal somehow managed to escape from the Maranga police station on Sunday night. He denied role of Purnia MP and Rupauli MlA in this episode. The opposition parties have accused the CM saying Mandal was released at the instruction of Nitish.
Mandal and his musclemen went to threat one Sonia Devi and warned her of dire consequences of she appeared in the court as witness in a case related to the murder of her husband Chanchal Paswan over ten years back in which Mandal is main accused. Mandal though denied the charge and said he had been called by one Ranjan Paswan to that place where he was manhandled.