Criminals' assaults on Bihar police continue

PATNA: In 10 days, two cops were gunned down by unidentified criminals in Bihar. At least seven policemen have been killed or became the target of criminals since October 2015 till Monday. Among the seven, in five incidents the service revolvers of the policemen were looted by the assailants while most of the cases remained undetected. On October 8, last year in on Budh Marg in Patna, criminals had opened fire at a probationer IPS officer of 2014 batch, Rakesh Kumar, posted as ASP Phulwarisharif and his bodyguards. Rakesh was hit by three bullets — one in his hand, one in his back and the third grazed past his earlobe. ‎His bodyguard, Suresh Das, was hit by one bullet in his stomach.

On September 24, Ram Raj Chaudhary, the assistant sub-inspector (

ASI

) with

Bihar Police

posted with the Telhara police station in Nalanda. He was gunned down with five bullets that hit different part of his body. Patna zonal IG N H Khan has constituted separate special investigation teams (SIT) to investigate the attack on the cops including the murder of Qayamuddin Ansari, station house officer of Kothi police station in

Gaya

on Monday morning. The incident took place when Ansari had left his house for a morning walk. Khan told TOI, “The trend is definitely worrying but prima facie is these are criminal activity committed by some criminal groups. Though Gaya district, especially Kothi police station is Maoist infested. Our investigation is open to all angles including involvement of Maoists or their splinter groups like PLFI.”

Patna SSP Manu Maharaaj, who is already heading a SIT which is probing the murder case of ASI Chaudhary at Fatuha has been asked by the Patna zonal IG to coordinate with the SIT head by the Gaya City SP to probe the murder case of SHO Kothi. The IG said, “The raids are going on and we cannot rule out the possibility that a same group is lambasting the men in khakee. Their activities are not restricted to Magadh zone only.”
On April 18, two criminals gunned down a police sub-inspector (SI) and snatched his service revolver in broad daylight at

Gorakshini

under Barh police station area in Patna district. The SI Suresh Thakur was posted with Maranchi police station of Patna. Similarly, two armed criminals attacked Bhuvaneshwar Prasad, a retired police SI on March 16 at Bhind in Nalanda district. Prasad had survived his injuries.

A senior police official said, “We cannot rule out the possibility of retaliating killing as many criminals are out on bail and they are taking revenge. Many a times during police investigation, innocents are being sent to jails and may be they are on retaliation spree like the Maoists do.” Early this year, on January 8, bullet-riddled body of an assistant sub-inspector Ashok Yadav was found at

Hajipur

in

Vasihali

district. On January 30, suspected Maoists killed a SI rank officer, Bhavesh Kumar of

Dharhara

police station during an encounter at Lathiya Kol forests at

Lakhisarai

district.