PATNA: A policeman was shot dead on the premises of a court in Bihar’s Vaishali district on Tuesday by the associates of a juvenile undertrial, who managed to escape with handcuffs on.
Ram Iqbal Ravidas, a police havildar, received three bullets when he was escorting the juvenile undertrial, Prince Kumar, to the juvenile justice board (JJB) office on the crowded district court premises in Hajipur. A young man appeared before him and fired from close range. Ravidas fell to the ground, bleeding profusely, and died on the way to the Sadar Hospital, said police officials.
Prince Kumar, aged about 17, fled with the unidentified assailant on the latter’s bike moments after the shooting, which appeared to be a pre-planned attack by his associates to secure his freedom. The assailant also fired a few shots in the air to scare the crowd present there.
“The juvenile undertrial was brought to the court for a proceeding at the JJB pertaining to the ascertaining of his age. He was arrested in a case of robbery at an electronic shop in Hajipur in 2016. We have launched a manhunt to arrest him and the policeman’s killer,” said Vaishali ASP Ajay Kumar.
Shocked by the incident, Vaishali district judge AK Jain visited the spot of the shooting and spoke to the policemen present there. He reportedly took to task Town police station SHO Sunil Kumar for the lack of enough security arrangements on the court premises.
The incident raised fresh questions on security arrangements on court premises in Bihar. In September last year, an undertrial prisoner was shot dead by unidentified assailants on the premises of the sub-divisional court at Barh, some 60 km off Patna. Two other undertrials also sustained gunshot injuries.
Dreaded gangster Babloo Dubey was shot dead on the premises of the additional chief judicial magistrate’s court in Bettiah, West Champaran district, by two minor inmates of a remand home in May 2017. The juvenile criminals had escaped from the remand home a few months before the incident.