College boy’s death in accident sparks mob fury in Begusarai

BEGUSARAI: Enraged over the death of a college student in a road mishap on Saturday night, angry students disrupted traffic on NH-31 near a school under the Town police station area on Sunday morning.
Violence erupted after a police team reached there to clear the road for the traffic. Angry students indulged in heavy stone pelting opposing the move. The mob even smashed window panes of several vehicles passing by from there.Begusarai Sadar SDPO Rajan Sinha said, “To vent ire, the mob smashed window panes of more than a dozen vehicles. Taking advantage of the situation a few anti-social elements also indulged in heavy stone pelting resulting in minor injuries to cops including a few women constables. The mob also burnt tyres on the road.”
“With the situation turning volatile, reinforcements from nearby police stations were called and subsequently trouble makers were chased away,” the SDPO said adding police had arrested four persons in this connection. However, the figure may increase as police were in the process of identifying more persons responsible for the incident.
The trouble started on Sunday morning after one Vivek Kumar (22), a former student of the local GD College died in a road mishap on Manjhaul-Begusarai road on Saturday night. Vivek was also a former NCC cadet as well as a good sportsman and very popular among college students. On Saturday night, he had gone to Khamhar village with one of his friends to attend a marriage ceremony and was returning home when a speeding vehicle hit his motorcycle. While his friend sustained leg injury in the incident, Vivek was critically injured and succumbed on way to the hospital.
Shocked and angry over his death, a group of students disrupted traffic on the highway which later turned into an ugly situation. The Sadar SDPO said that the violent mob also targeted a few press photographers who had gone to capture the incident. “One of the photographers also sustained injury in the incident,” he said adding, “The process of lodging FIR was under process.”