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Off-duty jawan killed during robbery bid in Patna
An army jawan was shot dead by four unidentified miscreants after he allegedly resisted a robbery attempt in Bihar’s capital Patna in the wee hours on Thursday, police said.
A 34-year-old army jawan was shot dead by four unidentified miscreants after he allegedly resisted a robbery attempt in Bihar’s capital Patna in the wee hours on Thursday, police said, adding that the incident took place hours after a 15-year-old girl was shot at in the city.
The jawan, identified as Bablu Kumar (34), a resident of Chandpur village in state’s Vaishali district, was posted in the army’s signal corps in Arunachal Pradesh, police said.
Kumar was on his way to Patliputra Junction along with his cousin, Vijay Kumar, to board the Rajdhani Express to Guwahati when the incident took place near the Old Bypass road under the Kankarbagh police station area around 3 am on Thursday, senior superintendent of police (SSP), Patna, Manavjit Singh Dhillon told HT.
“As soon as their two-wheeler reached near Chandan Automobiles (Colony More), four armed criminals on two bikes intercepted them and tried to snatch his bag. When he resisted, one of them fired at Kumar from behind,” said Dhillon. “Kumar fell on the road while his cousin escaped from the spot. After 30 minutes, his cousin returned and found the army jawan lying in the pool of blood and his bag missing.”
The cousin informed the family members, who reached the spot and brought Kumar to Danapur military hospital, where doctors declared him brought dead, the senior officer said.
Kumar’s cousin Vijay told HT that the incident took place around 3am and the jawan was shot in his head from point blank range.
The slain army jawan’s father Amarnath Yadav is a close associate of Bihar’s deputy chief minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav, a senior police officer said, requesting anonymity.
The jawan, who was posted in Arunachal Pradesh, had come home on a 45-day leave for admission of his two children, aged 12 and 10, in Kendriya Vidyalaya in Patna’s Kankarbagh area. The two children got admission in Class 5 and 4 on August 1.
The jawan’s family was residing in a rented house in Fatuha area in Patna while his cousin is a resident of Kumhrar, the SSP said.
“The army jawan was set to join his service and was travelling pillion on Vijay’s bike. The criminals intercepted them and asked address of Patna Junction before shooting at Bablu Kumar,” he said. “We are waiting to record Vijay’s statement and scan CCTV footages from near the spot. Further probe is on.”
Efforts are being made to identify the assailants and nab them, the SSP said.
The jawan’s maternal uncle, Indubhusan Yadav, alleged that the incident was the result of poor police patrolling. Kumar was the eldest among three brothers and two sisters, all of whom are married. “His father is inconsolable,” said Yadav.
This was the second major crime in the state capital within 12 hours. On Wednesday, a Class 9 girl student was shot at by unidentified miscreants in Indrapuri area of Sipara under Beur police station around 7.30 pm when she was returning from a coaching institute, police said. The girl, who received bullet injuries in the neck, is undergoing treatment at a private hospital, police said.
Meanwhile, the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state attacked the state government led by chief minister Nitish Kumar, alleging that criminals have become “fearless” ever since the Mahagathbandhan government came to power.
“These are no routine crimes and show how emboldened criminals have become in the state within days of the new government assuming office,” former Union minister and BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters in Patna. “If this is the situation in the state’s capital, one can imagine where the state is heading.”
The Grand Alliance comprising seven parties, including Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) and deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav’s RJD, formed the government in Bihar on August 10, a day after the JD(U) severed ties with the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance.
Prasad, a Lok Sabha MP from the Patna Sahib constituency, claimed: “The state is returning to jungle raj.”
