Bihar: man held for allegedly trying to poison handpump

A man was held today for allegedly trying to poison handpump in a school in a village under Parasbigha police station area in Bihar's Jehanabad district, a police officer said.

A man was held on Saturday for allegedly trying to poison handpump in a school in a village under Parasbigha police station area in Bihar's Jehanabad district, a police officer said.

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The villagers found man, later identified as Munna Ansari, moving in a suspicious manner in the primary school premise in Godiha village and beat him up mercilessly by suspecting that he was there allegedly to poison handpump, the superintendent of solice (SP) Shayali Dhurat said.

Dhurat said that she and the District Magistrate Md. Sohail rushed to the village with police force after being informed about the incident and rescued the man from clutches of angry villagers who were refusing to hand him over to cops.

Apparently determined to teach Ansari a lesson, the villagers pelted stones on the police force in which two police officers, identified as Parasbigha SHO Samrat Singh and Shakurabad SHO Vinod Kumar, sustained injuries, she said.

The police lathicharged on the mob before safely rescuing him from the custody of the villagers, Dhurat said.

She said that Ansari, a native of Ghughri village under Jamalpur police station area of Khagaria district, has been taken to a hospital for medical check up and his belongings were being searched to find out whether he was carrying chemicals or related materials with him.

Dhurat confirmed that some eatables like Sattu (floured gram) and guava have been recovered from the suspect's possession.

It may be mentioned that incidents of suspected poisoning of handpumps in schools have taken place in several districts with hundreds of students taking ill in the past fortnight prompting the state government to order a probe.