Bihar: Dead man booked under SC/ST Act in Jehanabad

PATNA: Even after three days of lodging an FIR against a man who died two years ago, the Jehanabad police is yet to ascertain whether the accused booked under The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act is alive or dead.
One Jagdish Das of Waina village in Gandhar panchayat under Ghosi police station area of Jehanabad lodged an FIR with SC/ST police station against eight upper caste persons, including one Neeraj Kumar, for assaulting and abusing him by his caste when he had gone to a village shop to purchase some household items on June 9.
When asked on Sunday, SHO Baleshwar Paswan said police were still investigating the matter to ascertain if the accused Neeraj was dead or alive. “I have come to know from media reports only that Neeraj is already dead,” he said.
When contacted, panchayat sarpanch Siddhnath Sharma confirmed that Neeraj died of cancer around two years back. “He used to work in a factory in Delhi. After undergoing treatment at Safdarjung hospital there for a long time, he had returned home and died,” he said.
The sarpanch alleged that the FIR was lodged to implicate a few upper caste people over a dispute. “The case is a fallout of torching an autorickshaw of one Santosh Ram of the village by miscreants on June 7 night. Santosh blamed his neighbour Mrityunjay Pandey for the incident and lodged an FIR against him with Ghosi police station,” he said.
Sharma said some upper caste people assured Santosh next morning that he would be properly compensated for the loss. “However, Santosh started hurling caste-indicative abuses when two upper caste youths pounded on him. They were immediately stopped by the senior villagers,” he said.
He said later in the night, Santosh’s associates intercepted the upper caste youths involved in the morning brawl and thrashed them after which both sides approached the police.
When contacted on Sunday, Ghosi police station SHO Nikhil Kumar said village chowkidar Munarik Paswan confirmed that the accused Neeraj was dead. “We will share this information with the SC/ST police station,” he said.
SHO Kumar said altogether five FIRs – one for torching of vehicle and two each by both sides for brawl -- were registered on June 10. “Several accused from both sides are evading arrest,” he said.