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7 Bihar cops suspended for laxity in SHO lynching case, 7 accused held
The Bihar Police SHO, who was leading the raiding party, was beaten, strangled to death and his body left in West Bengal’s North Dinajpur district early on Saturday.
Seven police personnel in Bihar, including a circle inspector, were suspended for alleged dereliction of duty resulting in the lynching of Kishanganj station house officer (SHO) in-charge Ashwani Kumar (51), during a raid in neighbouring West Bengal early Saturday to arrest members of a bike-snatching gang. Seven persons, including the main accused in the lynching case, have been arrested so far, said officials.
Kishanganj SP Kumar Ashish said, “The police team accompanying the SHO during the raid in Bengal, escaped, leaving the SHO alone,” adding, “This action on their part has discredited the police and hence stringent action will be taken against the erring cops.”
The SHO, who was leading the raiding party, was beaten, strangled to death and his body left at Pantapara village under Goalpokhar police station area in West Bengal’s North Dinajpur district early on Saturday, said a police official. He was declared brought dead at the Islampur hospital in the district.
Raju Sahni, Akhileshwar Tiwari, Pramod Kumar Paswan, Ujjawal Paswan, Sunil Choudhary, Sushil Kumar and circle inspector Manish Kumar were suspended by Purnia range inspector general of police (IGP) Suresh Choudhary on Saturday for allegedly abandoning Kumar, who was surrounded by the mob.
“We recommended for their (seven cops including circle inspector) suspension and the IG has placed them under suspension and departmental action will be initiated against them,” said Kishanganj superintendent of police (SP) Kumar Ashish.
Bengal police has registered a case under Sections 147, 148, 149, (All three related to rioting and mob lynching), 326 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons), 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty) and 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) at Golpokhar police station. Kishanganj police have also lodged a case under Section 394 (voluntarily causing hurt while committing robbery) of the IPC.
SP Choudhary said main accused Firoz Alam was among the seven arrested in the SHO lynching case and raids were still being carried out to nab the remaining accused.
The failed Saturday raid was carried out on Choudhary’s instructions to all police stations in Kishanganj to arrest the bike-snatching gang. During the last six months, over a dozen incidents of bike snatching were reported from Kishanganj. Bihar Police team decided to carry out the operation in West Bengal after learning that the gang members were hiding there, taking advantage of the jurisdictional restrictions. The village where the lynching took place is about 8 kms from Kishanganj.
The SP alleged that the Bengal police didn’t cooperate in the operation initially. “Bengal police were duly informed before conducting the raid but unfortunately no Bengal police personnel reached at the site despite frequent phone calls made by the police team,” the SP said.
Superintendent of Islampur police district earlier said they had requested Bihar Police team to wait and reschedule the raid. “The team had come to us around 2:30 am on Saturday . As elections were going on in the state and our men were already deployed, we requested them to reschedule the raid. We never knew that they went ahead with the raid. We have already arrested a few accused. It is a very unfortunate and tragic incident,” said Sachin Makkar, SP, Islampur.
The slain SHO was a resident of Jankinagar in Purnia and is survived by his wife Meenu Sneh Lata and three children. His mother died on Sunday morning after hearing of his son’s death. Last rites of both mother and son were performed in their native village at Panchu Mandal Tola in the presence of senior police and administrative officers and hundreds of people late Sunday afternoon.
