Patna: Bihar Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary on Thursday announced a government job and financial assistance for the family of Bharat Bhushan Tiwari, who was killed in an encounter with police in Bhojpur district on June 17.
The Chief Minister announced in a social media post. Authoritative sources said the government decided to offer a government job to a family member and provide financial aid based on an interim report submitted by a judicial commission.
The government had set up a judicial commission headed by retired Patna High Court judge Justice Vinod Kumar Sinha. The commission submitted its interim report to the government, prompting it to announce assistance for the victim’s family.
Tiwari had suffered five gunshot injuries during the encounter, which his family members called a ‘murder in cold blood’, alleging that he was shot after he had surrendered before the police. The police, on the other hand, claimed that they had fired in self defence.
The encounter had triggered a political controversy ahead of the Bankipur by-election, which was held after BJP national president and sitting MLA Nitin Nabin was elected to the Rajya Sabha.
The BJP received a major setback as a majority of voters from the upper caste communities did not support the BJP candidate.
Tiwari belonged to the upper caste Brahmin community. Some political experts believe that strong resentment among the upper caste Brahmin community over the incident was a key factor in the BJP’s defeat in the Bankipur Assembly by election.
Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor won the by election, defeating BJP’s Neeraj Kumar Sinha by a margin of 19,324 votes.
Reacting to the government’s announcement to provide financial aid to Bharat Bhushan Tiwari’s family, Prashant Kishor said that all those killed in police encounters should be given compensation by the government.
“The financial aid announced by CM Samrat Choudhary for Bharat Bhushan Tiwari’s family is not the beginning of justice. All those families who lost their members in such encounters be given financial assistance,” he told the media.
Referring to Bunti Yadav’s killing, the Jan Suraaj Party leader said that the announcement for one of the victims smacked of political vendetta.