News Analysis India

Tag: Bihar crime

  • Bihar cop suspended after video of him getting massage by woman goes viral

    By PTI

    SAHARSA: A policeman in Bihar was suspended on Friday after a video of him getting massage from a woman, who had approached him in connection with a case, went viral on the Internet.

    Saharsa Superintendent of Police Lipi Singh ordered the suspension of Shashibhushan Sinha, who was in charge of Darhatta outpost in the north Bihar district.

    “The conduct of the police official is tantamount to indiscipline and wanton behavior (uddandta). We have taken suo motu cognizance and he has been placed under suspension pending inquiry,” the district police chief told reporters.

    In the embarrassing video clip, about half a minute long, the bare-chested official can be seen with two women, one of them sitting next to him and the other massaging his neck, shoulders and back.

    According to police sources, the women were related to an accused in the rape case of a nine-year-old girl.

    They had allegedly sought the policeman’s help to secure bail for their jailed relative.

    In the video, the official can be seen talking languidly over his mobile phone, apparently to a lawyer.

    He can be heard saying “I am sending to you two women with some money, Aadhar card and copies of documents. They are very poor. Please help them. I have ended up spending Rs 10,000 from my own pocket in their case”.

  • Attackers throw acid at Bihar man during Holi, victim dead

    By IANS

    PATNA: Amid Holi celebrations across the country, a group of miscreants threw acid on a man in Bihar’s Nalanda district. The victim died on the spot, an official said.

    “The incident took place in Nadha village around 5 p.m. on Friday. The investigation is currently underway to identify the victim,” said Krishna Murari Prasad, Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO) of Nalanda district’s Hilsa range.

    “We have sent the body for post-mortem,” he added.

    The reason for the incident has not been ascertained yet, although, the accused, who are still at large, have been identified, the police said.

    When the local police received information about the incident, they immediately reached the spot. However, a large number of villagers, who had gathered there, began pelting stones at them.

    The situation in the area is extremely tense. A large team of police is camping in the village to bring the situation under control, the officials said.

    According to sources, as the accused belong to the same village, the locals attacked their houses. The police have also zeroed in on the family members of the suspects to force them to surrender.

  • ‘My murdered daughter lives on in my girl students,’ says Bihar man awaiting justice

    By PTI

    PATNA: Nearly two decades ago, a young marine engineer gave up a promising career in Mumbai to return to his village in a north Bihar district with a mission to equip girls of the area with the skills for a better future.

    Eighteen years later, Umashankar Thakur (45), needs the same resolve and strength of conviction to hold himself together and keep running his institute as he battles the trauma of his teenage daughter’s murder.

    “It seems like only yesterday when my daughter had left her home on a bicycle to see me at my institute, which is 14 km away. She never came but the news of her gruesome killing did,” recalls Thakur, a father of three whose only girl child was stabbed to death by a group of persons on September 14.

    A resident of Karnauti village in Vaishali district, Thakur runs his institute in Patori Bazar of Samastipur.

    Evocatively named “Daughters’ Development Group” (DDG), the institute offers six hours of coaching daily for a modest monthly fee of Rs 300 and boasts of alumni that include those who have got into IITs and cracked NEET.

    The students are drawn from villages of both adjoining districts and though boys are also allowed, it is mostly girls who come here to hone their skills in Physics, Chemistry and the social sciences.

    “I know my daughter is gone. But I also feel she continues to live on in the form of these girls, many of whom are of her age. I have to continue working for them. Teach them not only what is in their syllabus but also how to assert themselves when confronted with the hostilities of an essentially patriarchal social order,” Thakur reflects pensively.

    The bereaved father draws satisfaction from the fact that the alleged perpetrators had been nabbed soon after the killing of her daughter but is wary of legal wrangles, proving right the axiom “justice delayed is justice denied”.

    “I request the state government and other authorities concerned to ensure speedy trial in this case as ‘justice delayed is justice denied’. Meri beti ko insaaf milega (my daughter will get justice),” he said.

    Although full facts of the incident are not known, the murder had evoked a huge outcry with villagers demanding a CBI inquiry.

    A visit was also paid to the bereaved family by Chirag Paswan whose father had nurtured the Hajipur Lok Sabha constituency under which the village falls and who has an axe to grind against the state government besides the current MP, his rebellious uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras.

    Nonetheless, Vaishali SP Maneesh Kumar is confident that justice will be meted out swiftly to the accused, who were arrested within 10 days of the incident.

    “We hope to soon complete our investigation. The accused have also been slapped with the stringent POCSO Act. We will also request the competent court for a speedy trial,” assures Kumar.

  • Priest shot dead after dispute in Bihar, locals lynch one of assailants 

    By PTI

    DARBHANGA (Bihar): A 45-year-old priest was shot dead over a dispute regarding a mobile phone in Bihar’s Darbhanga district on Thursday, following which one of the alleged assailants was lynched by locals and two others were arrested by the police.

    The incident took place early in the morning when four armed men barged into Kankali temple in the University police station area and shot dead priest Rajeev Kumar Jha and injured a devotee, Station House Officer Satya Prakash Jha said.

    The injured devotee, identified as Shambhu Choudhary, has been hospitalised and his condition is stated to be stable, he said.

    After the incident, locals chased the alleged assailants and nabbed three of them, while one managed to escape.

    The trio was brutally thrashed by the locals, as a result of which, one of them — identified as Pulkit Singh — died, while the other two were arrested by the police, the officer said.

    “Preliminary investigation suggests that the deceased assailant had some dispute over a mobile phone with the priest’s son,” he said, adding further investigation is underway.

    Locals, however, claimed that the slain priest had lodged a police complaint against the lynched man a few days ago but no further action was taken against him.

    Police, though, remained tight-lipped over the charge.

  • 47-year-old RTI activist shot dead in Bihar

    By PTI

    MOTIHARI: An RTI activist was shot dead by two unidentified motorcycle-borne men in Bihar’s East Champaran district on Friday, a senior police officer said.

    The deceased, Vipin Aggarwal (47), was killed outside his residence in Harsiddhi division area around noon, Superintendent of Police Naveen Chandra Jha said.

    The two accused fled the spot after pumping four bullets into Aggarwal.

    The 47-year-old was immediately taken to a local hospital, where doctors declared him brought dead, the SP said, adding that his body has been sent for post mortem.

    A local police officer said on the condition of anonymity that Aggarwal (47) had filed several RTI applications seeking details of government land and property that have allegedly been encroached upon in the district.

    He had, on occasions, raised his voice against many corrupt activities in the region.

    The activist’s family members suggested that local land mafia could be responsible for his murder, the officer added.

  • Charas worth Rs 35 crore seized, three Nepalese arrested in Bihar

    By PTI
    GOPALGANJ: Three Nepalese were arrested and 265 kg of charas seized from their possession in Bihar’s Gopalganj district on Sunday, police said.

    During a regular vehicle-checking drive, a police team searched a pick-up van at Balthari check-post on National Highway 28 in Kuchaikot police station area and seized the contraband worth Rs 35 crore, SHO Ashwini Kumar Tiwary said.

    The pick-up van was coming from Birganj in Nepal and was scheduled to deliver the consignment at Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh, he said.

    The arrested persons are residents of Nepal, the officer added.

  • Man throws baby into fire as mother rejects sexual advances in Bihar

    By PTI
    MUZAFFARPUR: A man allegedly threw a three-month-old baby girl into a fire in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur district on Sunday after her mother protested against his sexual advances, police said.

    The baby received severe burn injuries in her legs and she is being treated at the Sadar Hospital, they said.

    The incident took place in the Bochahan police station area when the woman was sitting outside her home near a bonfire, police said.

    The man sat beside the woman and tried to sexually harass her, against which she protested, they said.

    Following this, the man snatched the baby from the woman’s lap and threw her into the fire, causing severe burn injuries to the baby, police said.

    Deputy Superintendent of Police (Headquarters) Baidyanath Singh said that an FIR has been lodged in connection with the incident.

    The man has been booked under IPC sections 307 (attempt to murder), 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt) and 341 (punishment for wrongful restraint), the officer said.

    An investigation is underway, he added.

    The women’s husband alleged that the local police station did not lodge an FIR at first, following which he approached Senior Superintendent of Police Jayant Kant.

    The police started the investigation on the SSP’s intervention, he said, demanding immediate arrest of the accused.

  • Deaf, mute 15-year-old gangraped, eyes damaged in Bihar

    By PTI
    MADHUBANI (Bihar): A 15-year-old deaf and mute girl has been allegedly gangraped in Bihar’s Madhubani district and her eyes were damaged with a sharp object so that she couldn’t identify the perpetrators, police said on Wednesday.

    Both her eyes were damaged but it is yet to be ascertained whether she has completely lost her eyesight, doctors attending to the girl, who is in a critical condition, said.

    Three persons have been arrested in connection with the incident that took place in Kauwaha Barhi village in Harlakhi police station area on Tuesday when she took her goats for grazing, Superintendent of Police Satya Prakash said, adding all the accused hail from the same village.

    Village head Ram Ekbal Mandal said that the girl had taken her goats for grazing to a field outside the village with some other children.

    One of the children informed the girl’s family about the incident.

    They found her lying unconscious in a barren field in neighbouring Manoharpur village.

    The girl was admitted to the nearby Umgaon community health centre, where doctors referred her to Madhubani Sadar Hospital given her critical condition, Harlakhi police station SHO Prem Lal Paswan said.