PATNA: The Election Commission (EC) has sought a detailed report on the killing of a Jan Suraaj Party supporter under the Mokama assembly constituency in Patna district.
Bihar director general of police (DGP) Vinay Kumar has been told to submit an action taken report (ATR) at the earliest.
Dularchand Yadav, 75, was killed allegedly during a clash between supporters of Jan Suraaj Party candidate Priyadarshi Piyush and those of Janata Dal (United) candidate Anant Singh during campaigning near Tartar village under Ghoswari police station limits on Thursday.
The ECI swung into action following reports of stone pelting and firing in the Mokama area after the murder of Dularchand Yadav and the subsequent attack on the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) candidate Veena Devi’s car. Veena is the wife of don-turned-politician Surajbhan Singh.
An FIR has been registered against four individuals, including JD(U) candidate Anant Singh, in connection with the incident. They have been booked under section 103 of Bharatiya Nyaya Samhita (BNS). Anant is learnt to have gone into hiding after a case was registered against him on Friday.
Tension escalated after the vehicle of RJD candidate Veena Devi was pelted with stones near Pandarak on Friday. The protestors put up road blockades and shouted slogans against the government, demanding justice for the deceased’s family.
Visuals from Mokama showed fresh incidents of stone pelting and firing in the area, with one person shouting in Hindi, ‘Anant Singh’s men are firing’.
The funeral procession was taken out with the body of the deceased Dularchand Yadav, once a close aide of former chief minister and RJD supremo Lalu Prasad and also Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, amid heightened security on Friday.
Dularchand Yadav's postmortem was conducted under the supervision of a medical board constituted by the Patna district magistrate. A large number of supporters of Dularchan staged a protest outside the Barh sub-divisional hospital.
Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor also condemned the killing of JSP supporter in Mokama on Thursday and blamed the district administration for the incident.
Describing it as a clear failure of law and order in the State, he said that such incidents reflected the return of ‘jungle raj’. Kishor, however, clarified that Dularchand was officially not a party member, but he was extending his support to JSP’s official nominee Prayadarshi Piyush in the election.
“JSP has provided an alternative to people of Bihar during the forthcoming election," Kishor added.
Referring to Thursday’s incident, sub-divisional police officer (SDPO), Barh, Abhishek Singh, said that police received information that a convoy of two parties was crossing each other, one party fired at the other over some issue and tried to run them over.
“First information report (FIR) has been registered, and proper investigation is underway. The forensic team also visited the spot and collected a sample. Action will be taken against the accused based on evidence,” he told this reporter over the phone.
Neeraj Yadav, Dularchand’s grandson, who accompanied the deceased, told the media that the convoy met head-on on the narrow lane.
"There was chaos, and some people dragged my grandfather away. They shot him in his leg and thrashed him, but when he did not die, they ran a vehicle over him,” he claimed.
Speaking to the media, Anant Singh claimed Dularchand only had attacked first and alleged that former MP Surajbhan Singh was behind the clash.
Veena Devi dismissed the accusation. “Anant Singh himself was present when the incident took place, and now he is blaming others,” she said.
