Bihar: Kidnapped RTI activist’s charred body found in Madhubani

PATNA: Police recovered charred body of a kidnapped RTI activist cum a small tile web-portal reporter Buddhi Nath Jha alias Avinash Jha (23) from a bush on an empty land in between Urain and Pali villages under Benipatti police station area in Madhubani district on Friday night.
He was kidnapped by at least by four men from market area near his house at Lohia chowk on night of November 9. Body was handed over to family after autopsy on Saturday.
His brother Chandra Shekhar had later lodged an FIR for kidnapping suspecting that Jha was abducted by those illegal health care clinic owners whom he had had exposed, as per police.
Jha was running a campaign since last couple of years and had filed RTI applications, reportedly wrote articles on social media against illegal and unauthorised clinics, hospitals and health care establishments.
He had even filed several petitions to Madhubani DM against such establishments running without any licence after which several were either shut by administration or were slapped with hefty fines, police sources said.
When asked, Benipatti SDPO Arun Kumar Singh on Saturday told this newspaper that raids are on to nab those involved in Jha’s killing.
A police officer from Madhubani said that Jha was kidnapped then strangulated to death using a coconut rope after wrapping it around his neck.
“It was extracted in post-mortem. The body was identified by family members on basis of a ring he had in one of his fingers, a mole in leg and charred remains of his red coloured shirt wearing which he had left home on November 9,” he said.
The officer said it seems he was murdered somewhere else after which body was dumped at the spot and burned as the grasses and bushes are also charred.
The officer said two persons including one who runs a private clinic has been detained for interrogation on Saturday. “Prima facie we suspect that Jha was murdered due to his activism as it had resulted action against several private clinics in Benipatti,” the officer said.