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Gyan Chand Jain
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The abduction and murder of Ranchi industrialist Gyan Chand Jain is a fresh pointer to unbridled growth in crime in Jharkhand that has earned strong opprobrium from both businessmen and people in general.
The 70-year-old owner of a tyre recyling unit — who went missing from Simalia, 25km from the district headquarters, on February 14 — was found dead and decomposed in Itki on Thursday morning, five days after his car was spotted in a Maoist den of neighbouring Gumla district.
FJCCI president Ranjit Kumar Tibrewal said it was high time the administration took concrete steps to protect the business community.
Dr Bharti Kashyap, ophthalmologist and executive member of FJCCI, said not just traders, doctors too feared for their safety even in the city. “There is not much difference between the Arjun Munda government and the President’s Rule as far as maintaining law and order is concerned. We demand speedy trial and conviction in this case,” she said.
“No one seems to be safe. We businessmen live in fear,” said the owner of a footwear showroom on Main Road, Ranchi, too frightened to be even named.
In protest against the murder, several business establishments in the capital remained closed on Thursday.
From noon, busy market areas like GEL Church Complex, Ranchi Club Complex and a bevy of showrooms and restaurants on Main Road downed shutters.
Prem Mittal, a senior office-bearer of Alumni of Ranchi Old Xaverians, said that this was not the first time police had been shamed for lax security.
“On February 17, a Saraswati Puja immersion procession turned ugly at Pathalgadda in Chatra, prompting police firing that left one dead and invited curfew. If one can die in a procession, where is one safe?” he said.
Deepak Jaiswal, a resident of Khunti, voiced similar concerns. “On February 16, a contractor and a para-teacher were shot dead in Torpa in this district and their bodies were dumped in Lapung. Before that, three persons were lynched in Gumla over alleged molestation of a woman. Criminals are beyond police control,” he said.
Mandar (Ranchi) resident Sadab Ahmed pointed out that on January 21, two people were shot dead in a market in broad daylight.
“Earlier, on January 3, a man was lynched by a mob when he tried to protest molestation in Bariatu in the heart of the capital. All these incidents are indications of deteriorating law and order,” Ahmed said.
A section of policemen too subscribe to this view.
“How do we guarantee safety of the common man when police training centres are not foolproof. Recently, an impersonator was exposed here. He had infiltrated the Jharkhand Jaguar and remained as a trainee for more than a month. The matter was brought to the notice of governor’s adviser K. Vijay Kumar, but the fraud is still at large,” a police officer said.
Political leaders too condemned the incident. BJP state Dineshanand Goswami claimed that the law and order situation had deteriorated under President’s Rule, while party vice-president Suryaani Singh called Jain’s the “a blot on President’s Rule”.
General secretary of Ranchi district unit of BJP Manoj Mishra demanded action against police officers who kept assuring Jain’s family members of his safety.
DGP G.S. Rath, however, played defensive.
“The law and order situation is very much under control,” he said.
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