A young man whose hands were chopped off after he failed to repay a loan languishes on the floor of a government hospital here, frightened and worried about his life ahead while police are yet to take action against his attackers more than a week after the incident.
Twenty-year-old Ram Sagar Chandravanshi, belonging to an extreme backward caste, has not been even given a bed at the Patna Medical College and Hospital where he has been lying for the past many days.
Narrating his tale of horror, Chandravanshi said he owed a Rs.300 debt to a powerful man in Kodra village in Bihar's Arwal district, 70 km from Patna.
"When I expressed my inability to repay the debt and requested them to give me some more time, they ordered me to work for a couple of contractors in lieu of the Rs.300 that I owed. But when I refused, it angered them so much that they first beat me badly and started hitting my hands with an axe, chopping them off," he said.
"I fell unconscious and they threw me in a field," he added. Chandravanshi is now worried about sustaining himself ahead.
"How I will earn my livelihood as my hands have been chopped off and there is little hope for proper treatment at this government hospital. My fate is now at the mercy of God," said Chandravanshi.
His family members sitting near him at the hospital told IANS that the local police have not taken any action in the case.
"No arrest has been made, the accused are roaming freely and threatening our family members to withdraw the police case. Police will not help poor people like us," Chandravanshi's newly-wedded wife Buchchi Devi said.
She said police were behaving as though nothing has happened.
"We have neither time nor resources to run for justice because his treatment is our prime concern at present. We are poor people," she said.
Ram Bali Singh, convenor of the Chandravanshi Struggle Committee, said he was shocked that local police initially were reluctant to lodge a first information report (FIR) against the accused. Later, the FIR was lodged but no action has been taken against the alleged attackers.
"I was told by his family members that Arwal Superintendent of Police Bimal Kumar has termed the incident as concocted and claimed that Chandravanshi's hands were lost in an accident on the railway tracks near Danapur (in Patna). We will seek justice for him," he said.
Contacted over phone, Kumar refused to talk on the issue. But Deputy Inspector General (Magadh range) N.H. Khan said he will order district police to record Chandravanshi's statement and investigate the case.