Bihar Registers Sharp Spike In Crime, BJP Slams Return Of ‘Jungle Raaj’

Bihar has, since January this year, registered a sharp increase in crime. Daylight murders and dacoities, kidnappings for ransom , chain-snatching, extortions and more have sent the law and order situation in the state on a swift downward spiral. 

This has prompted the BJP and its allies like the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) to slam the return of ‘jungle raaj’ in the state. 

BJP state president Samrat Choudhary told Swarajya that Bihar has witnessed more than 200 murders, 50 kidnappings for ransom, more than 300 dacoities and innumerous incidents of chain snatchings and other petty crimes over the last seven months.  

“Jungle raaj has returned to Bihar, just as we had predicted when Nitish Kumar rejoined the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD)-led mahagathbandhan. The RJD is the senior partner in the government and calls the shots while Nitish Kumar is a lame duck chief minister,” said Choudhary. 

The BJP state chief said that RJD patronises criminals who have become active since August last year when Nitish Kumar walked out of the NDA and rejoined the mahagathbandhan. 

“We had said last year only that dark days lie ahead for Bihar and criminals will once again become powerful because of the RJD’s patronage. Our worst fears have come true,” said Choudhary. 

Most news items published in newspapers and broadcast on local TV channels relate to crimes in Bihar. Not a day goes by without at least a few major crimes being reported from the state. 

On Sunday (August 20), for instance, a retired school teacher out on his morning walk at Begusarai was murdered by a couple of gangsters on a motorcycle who pumped a few bullets into him. 

A contractor was also felled by bullets that morning at Chakiya in East Champaran district. A kidnapping for ransom case was registered at a police station in the same district Sunday afternoon.

A station house officer (SHO) and three constables were attacked and seriously injured by goons engaged by the sand mafia in Gaya Sunday afternoon. 

The sand mafia, which allegedly has close links with senior RJD leaders, had emerged as a power entity and frequently attacks government officials who come in its way. 

The sub-divisional magistrate of Mohania in Kaimur district was nearly crushed to death when the driver of a truck laden with illegally mined sand that he had seized tried to ram into his vehicle on 23 April.

A week before that, three officers of the mining department, including a lady officer, were critically injured when they were attacked by sand mafia goons in Patna district. They had seized trucks loaded with sand mined illegally from the Sone river. 

Two bike-borne men snatched a gold necklace from the wife of a member of the Bihar Public Service Commission while the couple were out on their morning walk on Bailey Road in the heart of the city Sunday. 

Five dacoities and robberies, two attempted murders, abductions of two minor girls and a few more cases of heinous crimes were reported from various parts of the state Sunday. 

Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) president Chirag Paswan told Swarajya that 30 murders had taken place in Patna district alone in June-July this year. 

“I’m talking only about cases which have been registered. Most crime cases are not registered by the police. Thus crime statistics of Bihar don’t even tell a quarter of the true crime story of Bihar. Utter lawlessness prevails in the state now,” said Paswan. 

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar had said last week that Bihar’s crime rate is much lower than the national average. “The law and order situation in Bihar is much better than most states,” he had asserted. 

Paswan said the chief minister is “living in a fool’s paradise”. “The police have been asked not to register FIRs and that’s why the official crime figures are low in Bihar. The police have been given those orders at the behest of the RJD which controls everything. Nitish Kumar has to bow to the RJD’s diktats,” said Paswan.

Referring to the spurt in crimes in Bihar, former Union minister and senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said that a “reign of terror” prevails in Bihar. 

“People of Bihar are living in fear because of the crime lords in that state who have the blessings of influential people belonging to allies of Nitish Kumar,” said Prasad. 

Prasad referred to the murder of a police officer by cattle smugglers in Samastipur district and the murder of a journalist in Araria district last week. 

“Nitish Kumar cannot control even his own state and he dreams of running the country. He should own up responsibility for the sharp decline in the law and order situation in Bihar and step down,” said Prasad. 

The BJP and its allies will launch a series of agitations all over the state to highlight the spurt in crime in the state state and the criminal-political nexus.