Patna, Jan. 31: The recent arrest of a noted Jehanabad businessman, Abu Hanzala alias Motu, allegedly from Gaya town in connection with supply of explosives to Maoists operating in Magadh has kicked up a storm.

The family members of the trader have sought the intervention of the Bihar Human Rights Commission (BHRC) for justice.

This is the second incident in the recent past in which the role of police in apprehending people with rebel links has come under scanner. Earlier, one Pancham Paswan, a resident of Naudiha under Atari police station in Gaya, was declared a Maoist by the police. Deputy inspector-general (Magadh range) Nayyar Hasnain Khan, who conducted inquiry on the BHRC’s directive, however, gave a clean chit to Paswan.

In a petition submitted to the commission, Hanzala’s wife Shabnam Bano alleged that her husband was picked up from his Fida Hussain Road residence in Jehanabad town (Glass King) on January 6, 2012, at around 6am by a joint police team of Jehanabad and Gaya districts.

“There was no trace of my husband for almost two days. Though I approached the Jehanabad and Makhdumpur police, they did not give me any satisfactory answer. To my utter surprise and also other family members, the next evening the police confirmed his arrest and that too from Gaya,” she said.

The petition stated that the family finally came to know about Hanzala’s arrest when the Gaya police told them that the trader had been booked in a case lodged with Delha police station. He was produced in court on January 8, 2012, two days after his arrest. “My husband was kept in police lockup for more than 24 hours despite the fact that he was suffering from Hepatitis B,” Bano’s petition said.

She further alleged that the security personnel tortured Hanzala in detention. What is intriguing is that while the statement of the station house officer of Delha police station Raj Kishore Prasad claimed that Hanzala was taken into custody from the house of one Shashi Kant Kumar and huge quantity of explosives seized, the fact was different according to the petition. “My husband was arrested from Jehanabad town in presence of a number of residents, which was also covered by the reporters of both print and electronic news channels,” the petition read.

Commission sources confirmed the receipt of the petition. “The commission is yet to take cognisance of the matter,” a source in the BHRC said, adding that the petition was submitted to the commission on January 23.