Massive protests over advocate’s murder in Buxar, 5th lawyer killed in Bihar in 8 months

The advocate’s murder led to protests by his colleagues on the premises of Buxar district civil court.

Thirty-five-year-old lawyer, Kishore Kunal Pandey, was shot dead by unidentified motorcycle-borne gunmen near a petrol pump located on Itadhi road under Muffasil police station area of Buxar district on Monday morning.

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The reason behind the murder is said to be a land dispute and old enmity with someone. The murder led to protests by his colleagues on the premises of Buxar district civil court. This is the fifth murder of a lawyer in the state in eight months.

According to the cousin of the deceased, Vishwas Pandey, the incident occurred when Kunal was on his way to the court from his Gurdas-Mathia house. As soon as he reached near a petrol pump, a person riding a motorcycle intercepted him and fired from point-blank range. The bullet hit the advocate in the head and he fell on the road.

Locals and passerby rushed him to Buxar Sadar hospital where he was declared dead. On getting information, Superintendent of police (Buxar) Neeraj Kumar Singh and other police officials rushed to the spot and inquired about the incident. Police recovered two empty cartridges from the spot. “Criminals had fired on Kunal from very a close range as a bullet had pierced through his head,” a police officer said.

As the news of the murder reached the court, the lawyers started shouting slogans against the police and boycotted work resulting in disruption of court proceedings. The protesting lawyers demanded immediate arrest of the criminals involved in the case.

Later, a group of lawyers blocked the road and disrupted vehicular traffic for two hours. Buxar SP rushed to spot and heard their grievances. The roadblock was lifted after the SP’s assurances.

“The SP has given an assurance that the culprits will be brought to book at the earliest. We have agreed not to launch any agitation on his assurance,” said general secretary of District Lawyer’ Association Ganesh Thakur.

Many advocate associations in the state capital condemned the murder. “We demand the arrest of culprits within 24 hours, completion of investigation within a fortnight and completion of trial within 24 hours,” said lawyer Shashi Kant, adding that the incident reflects poor law and order situation in the state.

Earlier, sales tax advocate Satyendra Kumar was murdered near his house at Sheetal Tola under town police station of Ara in Bhojpur district on February 22. On February 16, a 35-year-old lawyer, Tuntun Akela, was shot dead by unidentified motorcycle-borne gunmen near Dahibhatta village in Gopalganj district.

Bihar State Bar Council’s former vice-chairman Kameshwar Pandey, along with his domestic help, was found murdered inside at his residence at Nawab Baghin in Bhagalpur in March. Earlier this month, on September 8, civil court lawyer Harendra Singh was shot dead at Sarari locality of Naubatpur police station area in rural Patna.

(With inputs from Prashant Ranjan, Bhojpur)