JD(U) MLA pulls out pistol on school teacher, gives him 5 days to vacate house: Police

The primary school teacher told the police that JD(U) MLA Gopal Mandal and his armed associates gave him five days to vacate his house or face consequences

PATNA: The Bhagalpur police has registered a first information report (FIR) against Janata Dal (United) legislator Narendra Kumar Niraj alias Gopal Mandal on charges that he pulled out a firearm on a school teacher to scare him into vacating his house on Wednesday, police said.

JD(U) MLA Gopal Mandal speaking with reporters at party office in Patna in 2023 (HT FILE PHOTO/Santosh Kumar)

Sunil Kumar Kushwaha, a school teacher at the Sanhaula primary school in Bhagalpur district’s Barari area, complained that the Gopalpur MLA turned up at his house on Wednesday with six others, pulled out his pistol and pointed it in his face to scare him.

Kushwaha said the MLA claimed that the house belonged to one of his relatives and demanded that he vacate the house. This wasn’t the first time that the lawmaker, who has previously been accused of strongarm tactics, showed up at the teacher’s door.

“Earlier on February 12 and February 22, the MLA told my tenants to vacate. We have been residing here for the past 13 years after we built a house,” said Kushwaha, adding that he purchased the land parcel more than a decade ago and had shared a copy of the papers with the police.

The MLA has threatened to demolish his house and construct a new building on the site, Kushwaha said, alleging that Mandal and his armed associates had given him five days to vacate the house.

Mandal, a five-time legislator, was suspended by the JD (U) in 2016 after he declared that he would eliminate his rivals. In 2023, he again hit headlines for allegedly waving a revolver during a visit to a state-run hospital in Bhagalpur. At the time, he had claimed that it was his habit to hold his “licensed revolver” in his hand.

City deputy superintendent of police (DSP-1) Ajay Kumar Choudhary said a FIR had been registered accusing the legislator and his associates of unlawful assembly, assault or criminal force against family members, mischief, threatening him with dire consequences and criminal intimidation.

Asked for his response, the legislator told reporters that he did ask the school teacher to vacate the house but claimed that he didn’t threaten him with a pistol.