Satyanand Sharma and (right) Vishnu Paswan at the news conference in Patna on Friday. Picture by Nagendra Kumar Singh

Patna, July 8: Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) slammed director-general of police Neel Mani today, holding him responsible for the rise in crime in Bihar.

Addressing reporters at the party office, national general secretary Satyanand Sharma alleged that Neel Mani is not taking enough measures to stop crime in the state.

“Neel Mani, who is holding a meeting every day regarding crime control in the state has failed to bring in peace in the state. Murder, kidnapping and rape cases have increased according to the data presented by the police department. It has broken all the previous records. We fail to understand what kind of meetings he is holding every day. Is it a political meeting or meeting with vested interest?” asked Sharma.

Commenting on the northward trend of the crime graph, Sharma alleged that Neel Mani has provided the wrong data of cases related to atrocities against Dalits. “The DGP has presented a wrong data on the number of cases of atrocities against Dalits, which was published in a few newspapers. However, the reality is something else. I know a person who was beaten badly by the police and is a victim of police atrocity. Vishnu Paswan, the man, had lodged a complaint on June 7, 2010 regarding the case but it’s been a year and no FIR has been recorded by the police yet,” Sharma said.

Also present at the occasion, LJP spokesman Lalan Kumar Chandravanshi, said: “Police do not take any action in cases related to Dalits, which is a serious crime. According to the report of Schedule Caste and Schedule Tribe (Prevention Atrocities) Act, there are only 10 SC/ST police stations in 38 districts. Thus, the Dalits filed less complaints. Out of 100 cases only 43 FIRs have been filed and just 3 per cent have been chargesheeted out of the total cases.”

Chandravanshi added: “The LJP demands that the cases related to the Dalits should be dealt with on priority basis. Neel Mani has to take coercive steps to curb crime. Also, help of investigative agencies should be taken to check crime and the police department should not be pressurised from any political parties or person.”