Patna, Jan. 4: Alarmed over the cold-blooded murder of BJP MLA Rajkishore Keshari at his Purnea residence this morning when the state was shivering from cold, the state government has decided to review the security of the legislators.

Additional director-general (headquarters) of police Pramod Kumar Thakur said the state police headquarters was busy chalking out a fresh strategy to ensure foolproof security to all the public representatives of the state after the murder of Keshari, the fifth MLA killed in cold blood in the past 16 years.

“We are going to submit a detailed plan to the state government to enhance the security of the MLAs at the earliest,” he told The Telegraph.

As per the plan, each MLA will get at least three security personnel against two at present. They will work in three shifts of eight hours each.

“The idea is to provide round the clock security cover to the public representatives,” Thakur said. At present, most of MLAs do not have any security cover at nights because the two guards work in shifts of eight hours each.

The police headquarters is of the opinion that the district police can enhance the security of the public representatives as per the threat perception.

“We are also going to propose the government to allow frisking of the visitors to the public representatives, if they wish so,” Thakur said, adding that it was the only means to prevent reoccurrence of the incident that happened in Purnea today.

The state police headquarters had deputed additional security personnel to the districts to provide security to the MLAs. “The security guards to the public representatives are allotted by the districts police under which their constituencies fall,” the ADG said. It is done so because the local cops are expected to be aware of the threat perception to the politicians of their area. They can also gather intelligence inputs more than the outsiders, a police officer pointed out.

Before Kishore, Ajit Sarkar, the CPM legislator then from Purnea, was gunned down by assailants on June 14, 1998. Former controversial MP from Purnea Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav and former Independent legislator from Govindganj (East Champaran) Rajan Tiwari were convicted in the case.

A day earlier (on June 13, 1998), a former minister and MLA from Adapur Brij Bihari Prasad was shot dead by armed criminals on the premises of the Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (IGIMS) in Patna. Devendra Dubey, the Govindganj MLA then, was also murdered by a gang of armed criminals at Bariaria village under Sangrampur police station in 1996.

Dubey was killed at a time when he had wished to contest the parliamentary elections from Motihari Lok Sabha seat. He was reportedly at loggerheads with Brij Bihari Prasad.

On July 3, 1995, Ashok Singh, MLA then from Masarakh in Saran district, was murdered at his official bungalow under Secretariat police station in Patna.