Over a month after the road rage murder of Class XII student Aditya Sachdeva in Gaya, chief minister Nitish Kumar visited his residence on Friday, met his family members and assured them that the state government was with them in their quest for justice.
Nitish's visit was unannounced and unscheduled. He met the slain teenager's father, Shyamsunder Sachdeva, mother Chand, grandmother Jeevan Kaur, brother Akash and others at their Swarajpuri Road residence in the town.
Expressing grief over the murder, Nitish told the Sachdevas: "The state and administration are with you. We will ensure that the culprits are punished and justice is delivered."
Shyamsunder told Nitish that the administration had done its work and he now expected that the state government to ensure speedy trial and the judiciary award exemplary punishment to the culprits.
"The judgment should force people to think several times before committing such a heinous crime," Shyamsunder told The Telegraph later.
The road rage incident in which Rocky Yadav, the son of JDU legislator Manorama Devi (now suspended from the party) and RJD leader Bindi Yadav, allegedly stopped the car carrying Aditya on the night of May 7 after it sped past his Land Rover and shot him dead, shook Bihar and reverberated in Parliament as well.
Nitish was in Gaya to address a programme of Jeevika self-help group members working under the Bihar Rural Livelihood Project, meet public representatives from the district and review development work in Magadh division.
In his speech at the Jeevika programme, Nitish spoke of prohibition and how the masses welcomed it. He pointed out that its impact was felt in other states too and people there had started raising the demand for ban on liquor. "There is a need for prohibition in neighbouring Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh to check habitual drinkers from our state to cross the border to have liquor," Nitish said.
He gave credit to Jeevika members to first demand ban on liquor in the state and later spearhead a campaign across the length and breadth of the state to ensure that the prohibition was not violated.
Asserting that prohibition had led to a perceptible drop in crime and accidents in the state, Nitish said overall crime had dipped by 15 per cent - 32 per cent in murder, 45 per cent in dacoity, 78 per cent in abduction for ransom and 32 per cent in road accidents.
Nitish also had advice for Union minister for road transport, highways and shipping Nitin Gadkari, who recently said over 400 persons lose their lives daily in road accidents in the country. "I want to tell him (Gadkari) to get liquor banned across the country. The number of road accidents will automatically come down by 32 to 40 per cent."
Later, Nitish held a four-hour-long closed-door meeting with legislators from Gaya district, barring Imamganj MLA and former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, and Gaya Town MLA and BJP Leader of Opposition in Legislative Assembly Prem Kumar to discuss development-related issues of their constituencies.
The legislators aired their grievances and demands related to development. Most demands pertained to drinking water, irrigation and electrification in their respective constituencies.
