Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar worked hard to improve the terrifying image of the state’s police force during his first term, but the ongoing celebrations for his return to power by a landslide seem to have put policemen too much in a high.
Even as a freshly sworn-in Kumar asked top police officials to make further improvements in law and order, parts of Bihar witnessed a hugely unexpected beginning of the much-glorified Nitish Raj-II in the past two days as policemen brutally beat up apparently innocent people and some others suspected for minor offences. In a shocking throwback to the dark times Bihar is desperate to forget, some drunken policemen even allegedly burnt down poor people’s houses and tried to molest Muslim women in one village.
In the middle of enjoying an overly raunchy song-and-dance show performed by semi-naked bar girls and attended by local politicians in a village in Bikram near Patna, policemen mercilessly slapped and beat up the driver of a private vehicle for saying he did not know who damaged the newly-elected BJP legislator’s car. “Naam bataa jaldi...Jaldi bol” (Tell his name fast) shouted a police sub-inspector as he continuously slapped and punched the man who happened to be near MLA Anil Kumar’s car at the show venue.
At the overnight ceremony, Congress leader Sanjeev Singh, who lost the Assembly polls in Bikram constituency to Anil Kumar, was seen dancing among the bar girls on stage and throwing scores of currency notes on them. Besides, dozens of people were seen carrying rifles and some even allegedly fired in air to apparently to honour a local industrialist who had organised the ceremony at Benibigaha to celebrate his son’s birthday.
A group of drunken cops in the eastern district of Purnea allegedly burnt down two houses of poor Muslim villagers and tried to molest several women at night. “Seven policemen came and asked us to open the doors. They badly misbehaved with us women and then burnt the houses,” said Shahezan Khatun of Mohammadpur village, who received injuries.
Angry villagers then locked the cops in one house for several hours. Sub-inspector Babban Chaudhary was suspended for this incident and a probe was ordered.
The GRP officer-in-charge at Begusarai railway station repeatedly slapped and punched a man, Rajesh Kumar, who had reached him with a complaint. The officer was caught on camera banging Mr Kumar’s head on a wall in a way that could prove fatal.
A few similar incidents of police brutality were also reported from other places over the past two days, raising hopes for intervention from chief minister Nitish Kumar, who had reviewed the police and crime situation in Bihar on Saturday night.