7-year-old girl killed in brawl over dog’s barking in Kaimur

PATNA: In a bizarre incident, a 7-year-old girl was shot dead and her another family member received gunshot injury following a brawl over barking of a pet dog in Kaimur district on Sunday evening.
Police said Anju Kumari alias Jhali, a resident of Pawra village under the Chand police station area, was fired upon with a licensed gun after an altercation over barking of a dog belonging to one Gyan Singh of the same village.Anju’s uncle Pyare Tiwari threw a stone at the dog when the latter barked and reportedly attempted to bite him when he was returning home from his work. Infuriated over Tiwari’s action, Singh’s son Vishwajeet Singh took out his gun from his house and opened fire.
A bullet hit Anju when she, along her father Bhim Tiwari, came out of their house to see what was happening outside. She died on the spot while her father Bhim Tiwari suffered minor injuries in the firing. Bhim was rushed to the local primary health centre for treatment.
As the news about the girl’s death spread, her family members and their supporters started pelting stones at Gyan’s house. Sources said Gyan received serious injuries in stone pelting and was admitted to a hospital in Varanasi.
Kaimur SP Dilnawaz Ahmad said on Monday an FIR had been lodged against Gyan and his son Vishwajeet, Sonu Singh, Maheshwar Singh, Suddu Singh and Piyush Singh on the statement of Anju’s mother Asha Tiwari. The SP said the accused were absconding.
Chand police station SHO Sachin Kumar said the trouble had started brewing on Saturday evening. However, the matter was settled after the police intervention. On Sunday, Vishwajeet again quarrelled with Tiwari over the dog’s barking and resulted in the murder of Anju, he added.
Anju’s uncle Raju Tiwari said his brother’s dream to make his only daughter a doctor has been shattered. “Anju was the only child of my elder brother,” he said.
The incident has triggered caste tension in the village. The locals vent their ire by protesting with the body and disrupting traffic for over five hours. “The body was lifted by the police for post mortem after the senior police officials promised to arrest the culprits at the earliest,” said Anju’s another uncle Arjun Kumar.