Commuters travel on the Haveli Kharagpur-Jamui road in the Ganta forest. Picture by Amit Kumar

Ganta forest (Munger/Jamui), Feb. 8: Criminals operating on Haveli Kharagpur-Jamui road in the inaccessible Ganta forest on the Munger-Jamui border are having a free run with personnel of two police stations busy splitting hair over its jurisdiction.

On February 6, one commuter was killed and more than 22 others were injured when a jeep and three trucks on the 14-km-stretch of the Jamui-Haveli Kharagpur road fell into a ditch after colliding with a roadblock near Chorpulawa, Munger, 7km from Lakshmipur, Jamui. One of the criminals responsible for setting up the roadblock was also killed.

The jeep was on its way to Sultanganj, Bhagalpur from Giridih in Jharkhand. The deceased commuter has been identified as Giridih resident Prasadi Shah.

A team from Lakshmipur police station was also combing the forest that night in search of Maoists but they did not come to the aid of the injured passengers.

This is not the first incident of its kind. Sources said criminals take advantage of the disputed jurisdiction of the 1-km-stretch between Chorpuwala and Kunda Asthan and loot commuters on the Jamui-Haveli Kharagpur road.

Lakshmipur resident Bajrangi Yadav told The Telegraph: “Such incidents are common in the area. Criminals target the stretch between Chorpulawa and Kunda Asthan as the jurisdiction is disputed.”

Senior police officers, however, claim that there should be no confusion over jurisdiction in the area.

Anil Kishore Yadav, deputy inspector-general of police, Munger range, told The Telegraph: “Earlier both the Lakshmipur and the Haveli Kharagpur police stations had demarked their areas and put up their respective notice boards on the two sides of the road. Between the two boards, there was a stretch of nearly 1km. This was not under anyone’s jurisdiction. But two months ago, the area was put under Haveli Kharagpur police station’s jurisdiction.”

He added: “I will ask Munger police to explain their irresponsible action. They will also be asked to explain how the criminals are still operating freely in the area.”

Munger superintendent of police P. Kannan was not available for comment. Neither did any officer of Lakshmipur nor Haveli-Kharagpur police station comment on the issue.

The villagers, however, claimed that police of both the districts refuse to act on any criminal incident in the area.

“Criminals also know that the police will not take any action if they commit a crime in this area. They take advantage of the situation. The crime graph has risen drastically. Personnel of both the police stations refuse to lodge a case if an incident occurs in the area. Both claim that it is not under their jurisdiction,” said Lakshmipur resident Arun Kumar.

No case has been lodged following the February 6 incident that occurred around 9.30pm. Cops from Haveli Kharagpur police station in Munger — about 15km away — arrived around 8.30 next morning. The injured passengers spent the night in the forest.