Ransom after killing, that's life in Patna

PATNA: If you think civic unrest against a crime and subsequent police actions force the criminal to go into hiding, you are sadly mistaken.
Take this: Dr N K Agrawal of Patna was shot dead by armed criminals on Friday for his refusal to pay extortion money. While state doctors went on an indefinite strike and came out on streets despite assurances from the government that police raids are on to nab the killers, the bereaved Agrawals got telephone calls from the criminals.
"Paisa toh dena hi hoga...hatya karane mein bhi kharcha hota hain (the money will have to be paid after all... for, getting someone killed also involves cost)," a close family friend of the Agrawals quoted one of the calls as having told them. In fact, another family friend told a meeting of the IMA on Sunday, that as many as 22 calls were made to the family members of the slain doctor.
Agrawal was killed within 72 hours of his seeking police help against one Bindu Singh, a name that evokes terror among the moneyed class of Patna. Though currently in Bhagalpur jail, Singh is alleged to have demanded extortion money from several doctors and traders thro-ugh his men. Agrawal had recei-ved the last call on November 8; lodged an FIR on November 10 and was killed on November 12.
State DGP Narayan Mishra describes Bindu as a maniac. And there is a method in the maniac''s madness: The other doctors on his target list came to know about Dr Agrawal killing not through TV or newspapers but through calls from Bindu''s men. "Agrawal ko maar diya hai... thodi der mein TV par dekh lijiyega (we have eliminated Agrawal.. you can watch it on TV)," callers told several doctors, including heart specialist A K Thakur, orthopaedic R N Singh, eye specialist K R Akhauri and physician Gopal Prasad Sinha.
As agitated doctors gave a strike call, as many as 18 of them were provided security cover by the police. The calls never stopped, though!
The agitation has also not stopped. Doctors are out on streets — almost everyone covered by gun-toting guards. The number of doctors in Patna with security is not just 18. Faced with extortion and abduction threats, many others have arranged guards — government and private — since long.
Imagine the sight: scared faces shouting slogans and turning heads every now and then to see their security guards are alert. At Biharsharif, doctors kept aside their stethoscopes and took lathis in their hands to hold what they said "doctoron ka sashastra pradarshan".