PATNA: The Bihar government on Tuesday handed over the investigation into the recent police firing on a group of people in Rohtas district, in which one person was killed and two others suffered bullet injuries on December 27 night, to the criminal investigation department (CID) following a public outrage.
Bihar police headquarters in a statement issued on Tuesday said that the deputy superintendent of police, traffic, Sasaram, Md. Adil Bilal and his bodyguard Chandramauli Nagia have been asked to report to the police headquarters with immediate effect. The DSP and his bodyguard have been removed from their place of posting to conduct a fair investigation.
The erring police officials will not be able to influence the probe. One person was killed and two others were injured in the incident.
Three separate FIRs have been registered in connection with the incident. The first FIR deals with the firing by the cops, the second FIR is related to the recovery of liquor bottles and other objectionable articles from the spot. The third FIR has been lodged on the statement of the DSP's bodyguard Chandramauli. Copies of all three FIRs have been provided to the CID to conduct a detailed investigation on the directive of the state police headquarters.
The incident took place when a police team led by DSP visited the spot on being informed about the consumption of alcohol at the birthday party held at Sasaram in Rohtas district on December 27 night. The DSP's bodyguard opened fire in self-defence when a group of people surrounded them and attacked the police team with stones, sticks and other hard blunt substances, as per the FIR lodged by the bodyguard Chandramauli.
On the other hand, the deceased Om Prakash's brother Rana Rahul Ranjan claimed that the police team led by DSP, Traffic, Mohammad Adil Bilal visited the spot to extort money from people enjoying the birthday party.
He, however, admitted that some people had consumed alcohol at the party. The police seized several bottles of alcohol from the spot. The incident took political overtones after the visit of some political party leaders cutting across party lines to the deceased Om Prakash's house.
On Tuesday, Neeraj Kumar Singh Bablu, minister of the public health and engineering department, met the members of the bereaved family and consoled them for the loss. The minister assured the family of stern action against the erring cops.
"The investigation is proceeding in the right direction. I have personally spoken to the state home secretary and chief minister Nitish Kumar has also been apprised of it," he told the media at Sasaram.