Loot in Gaya, ruckus over crime in Hajipur

Patna: Armed criminals looted Rs 25 lakh from an employee of a toll plaza on the busy Grand Trunk road in Gaya district on Friday, hours after local residents – led by members of a caste group – went on the rampage in Vaishali district protesting what they called the deteriorating law and order situation.

At Amas in Gaya district, around 169km south of Patna, four men on a motorbike robbed Mansoor Alam when he was going to deposit Rs 25 lakh in the Punjab National Bank around 11.30am.

“The robbers looted the man at gunpoint,” said Amas police station house officer (SHO) Ram Bahadur Yadav.

A police team, however, managed to nab four suspects. SHO Yadav said Rs 10 lakh, a country-made pistol and a motorcycle were seized. “Raids are on to recover the remaining money,” the SHO added.

Gaya senior superintendent of police Rajeev Mishra said the criminals’ links – if any – with employees of the toll plaza are also being verified.

Earlier in the day, around 9.30am, some residents of Hajipur in Vaishali district, around 20km north of Patna, set up road blockades and disrupted traffic at different points to vent their ire against steep rise in criminal activities. The mob also damaged public property at Paswan Chowk.

The district unit of the Akhil Bharatiya Kshatriya Mahasabha had given a call for a Hajipur bandh on Friday. The activists of the Mahasabha led by Ravindra Kumar had a scuffle with the security forces near Paswan Chowk when the latter tried to remove the road blockade.

The police personnel were pelted with stones, and a constable and a sub-inspector were injured.

The police later lathicharged the mob to bring the situation under control.

The residents were angry over the murder of Rajput Karni Sena member and marble dealer Sushil Kumar Singh, who was shot dead in his shop at Paswan Chowk last week.

On Friday, armed men ransacked the garments shop of one Raushan Kumar at Subhai Chowk near Hajipur and looted cash and valuables.

The criminals also fired in the air to terrorise the local residents.

“Hardly a day passes without any incident of murder, loot or attempt to murder,” said Ravindra Kumar, who was among 15 persons detained by the police on Friday. “A private coaching institute owner and a teacher were among two persons killed in the past couple of days. Earlier, an RTI activist was killed.”

Senior Hajipur police officers said the cops are investigating all the cases.

Courtesy: The Telegraph