Criminals open fire outside Buxar jail, cops escape unhurt

PATNA: Security personnel deployed at the Buxar Central Jail had a narrow escape when a group of criminals opened fire near the main entrance gate of the jail on Sunday. However, nobody was injured in the indiscriminate firing.
The incident took place around 8.30pm when the security personnel, including jawans of the Special Auxiliary Police (SAP), were on duty.Three motorcycle-borne criminals reached the jail gate and opened fire. The bullets hit the wall of the jail gate. The criminals, however, managed to escape.
Buxar DM Raghvendra Singh said the criminals escaped by the time cops on duty reacted to the incident. “Security around the jail has been beefed up and necessary steps are being taken to prevent re-occurrence of such incident,” the DM told this newspaper over the phone.
Superintendent of jail V K Arora said the motive behind the firing was to create panic among the inmates of the jail and also the security personnel. Earlier, a clerk in the prison was killed by anti-socials. “Sunday’s incident is not an isolated one,” the jail superintendent said.
Some miscreants had recently made an abortive bid on the life of a constable and a jail warder. “Local residents often go to the Ganges, which is on the northern side of the jail. Besides, there exists a densely populated locality in the southern end of the boundary wall,” the jail superintendent said.
The jail administration has prohibited the movement of local residents on the road leading to the Ganges as a precautionary measure. The patrolling in the periphery of the jail has also been intensified as a precautionary measure, Arora said.
Buxar SP Upendra Nath Verma said the incident appeared to be a fallout of skirmishes between two groups of people near the entrance gate of the jail on Saturday evening. The members of two groups had clashed during a procession, he added.
He said an FIR has been lodged against unknown people on the statement of a constable deployed at the gate. The outer security of the jail is maintained by the personnel of the district police. “Efforts are on to ascertain the identity of the criminals involved in the broad daylight firing,” he said.
Jailor Satish Kumar Singh said over 1,150 inmates were lodged in the jail. A few of them were notorious gangsters facing charges of murder, kidnapping and extortion. The activities of some of the undertrial prisoners are under the surveillance of the police.
Meanwhile, the police have obtained CCTV footage to ascertain the identity of the miscreants involved in the firing.