Police have launched a manhunt for dreaded gangster Awadhesh Mandal, who escaped from Moranga police outpost in Purnea district, around 300km northeast of Patna, late on Sunday night.
Mandal's close aide, Tuntun Alam was arrested during a raid at his hideout in Purnea on Tuesday. Senior police officers were interrogating him.
Purnea superintendent of police (SP) Nishant Kumar Tiwary said three separate teams had been formed to conduct raids to nab Mandal, the husband of former minister and JDU MLA Bima Bharti. A sub-divisional police officer officer heads each team.
Mandal was arrested on Sunday for allegedly intimidating two witnesseses in a murder case. Sonia Devi and Vijay Paswan, a mother-son duo, had complained to the police that they were facing threats from Mandal, who was an accused in the killing of Chanchal Paswan in 2005.
However, Mandal escaped from police custody under mysterious circumstances. Taking a serious note of the matter, Purnea SP Tiwary put the station house officer of Morang police outpost, Shiv Shankar, under suspension and initiated department proceedings.
When contacted, Tiwary said raids were carried out at different hideouts of Mandal, who faces charges of murder and extortion. But he could not be arrested, he said, adding that the role of his MLA wife and the local MP Santosh Kushwaha was being probed.
The SP also said that the role of the police personnel deployed at Moranga police outpost, which comes under the jurisdiction of Khazanchi Haat police station was also under the scanner of investigating officers.
Bima Bharti, who represents the Rupauli Assembly seat, said her husband was being implicated. "There is a conspiracy to eliminate my husband," she said, adding that Mandal faced threat to life from district board chairperson Sunita Singh.
Taking strong exception to the manner Mandal, a terror of Kosi region, escaped, the police headquarters directed the Purnea SP to intensify raids to nab him at the earliest. Additional director-general of police (headquarters) Sunil Kumar said whosever involved in the case would not be spared.
