Bihar’s spiraling crime wave claimed another victim in Madhepura when a shop owner was gunned down in his own store for refusing to sell cigarettes after hours. The horrifying midnight attack near TP College has police scrambling for clues amid public fury.
For 12 years, Pintu Kesari has served the neighborhood from his modest kirana shop. On Tuesday night, as he locked up around 12 AM, two helmeted men on a bike pulled up aggressively. ‘Give us cigarettes and gutkha,’ they barked. Pintu’s refusal sparked a heated exchange, ending with one assailant whipping out a pistol and blasting him squarely in the face.
Chaos erupted as Pintu’s brother Pappu and employee Shahnavaz witnessed the horror. Family members wasted no time, rushing Pintu to Madhepura Medical College, from where he was airlifted—figuratively speaking—to Saharsa for emergency surgery. The bullet was removed, but medical experts warn his recovery hangs by a thread.
Responding swiftly, authorities cordoned off the area and initiated CCTV combing operations. Anumandal PO Praveen Bharti vowed, ‘The accused won’t escape justice; our tech teams are on it.’
Locals gathered in protest, voicing deep concerns over nocturnal security lapses. ‘How can we sleep when killers roam free?’ one resident lamented. This shooting joins a grim litany of Bihar crimes—looting, murders, assaults—signaling an urgent need for robust policing to restore faith in the system.