All raiding team members axed for not rescuing Kishanganj SHO

PATNA: All the policemen, who were part of the team which raided a bordering village Patnapara in West Bengal to recover a looted bike, have been suspended for not rescuing Kishanganj Town police station SHO Ashwini Kumar from getting lynched there on Saturday. Pantapara is in Islampur police district of North Dinazpur, West Bengal.
Kishanganj SP Kumar Ashish told TOI over the phone on Sunday that he had sent a report to IG (Purnia range) Suresh Prasad Choudhary on the lynching incident on Saturday.“On the basis of that report, the IG has suspended Town circle inspector Manish Kumar and constables Raju Sahni, Akhileshwar Tiwari, Pramod Kumar Paswan, Ujjwal Kumar Paswan, Sunil Choudhary and Sushil Kumar for dereliction of duty,” he said.
“They were armed and could have saved the SHO. But none of them fired even a single round to deter the crowd from attacking the SHO,” he said.
Ashish said he met Islampur SP on Sunday again and asked him to take action against his erring police officers who failed to support Kumar’s team when they had asked for it before going for the raid. He said the IG has asked all police personnel in Purnia range to donate their one-day’s salary for Kumar’s family.
“It would come around Rs50 lakh. This would be in addition to the government help to the bereaved family,” he added.
Meanwhile, Kishanganj SDPO Anwar Jawed said it was a trader, Lucky Kumar, whose bike purchased four days back was looted by three criminals from the Town area. Jawed said at least four bike theft or loot incidents had taken place in the Town area within the last few days.
“The SHO started chasing one Zakir, a suspect in the bike loot case. Lucky and his two friends were accompanying the police team. The SHO took the circle inspector along with the raiding team before entering the Bengal territory. They sought assistance from Panjipara police outpost, but the officer on-duty didn’t provide any help,” he said.
The SDPO said SHO Kumar went to Zakir’s house, but his father and wife gave contradictory statements. “They later raided his in-laws’ house at Pantapara and found there at least 12 bikes, suspected to be stolen,” he said.
Anwar said the raiding team was trying to recover Lucky’s bike and asked Zakir’s in-laws to show papers of the parked bikes. It was then that a mob attacked the SHO while other policemen fled. Jawed said the SHO was hit on his forehead, knees and other body parts with blunt objects, leading to his death.