Patna: Haspura Bazar in Aurangabad district remained closed for the second consecutive day on Friday to protest a daylight robbery in a jewellery shop and subsequent murderous assault on two persons, including a jawan, in which one person died on May 1.
The protesters demanded immediate arrest of the robbers, who opened fire and hurled bombs to terrorise local traders before decamping with the gold jewellery. Haspura, around 50km west of Aurangabad district headquarters, observed a bandh on Friday.
While one of those injured in the mob violence succumbed to injuries on his way to Gaya from Aurangabad, the Army jawan - Ravi Kumar, 35 - is undergoing treatment at a private hospital in Patna under police custody. He his said to be out of danger.
The dead was identified as Bijendra Singh, 62, a resident of Kaler in neighbouring Arwal district. Both Bijendra and Ravi had gone to the jewellery shop to buy ornaments for a relative's marriage.
The robbers attacked the shop when Bijendra and Ravi were present there. As the criminals opened fire and exploded bombs, Bijendra and Ravi tried to flee. Residents who had gathered following the blast and indiscriminate firing mistook the duo to be members of the robbers' gang and brutally assaulted them. A police team rushed to the spot and rescued them from mob fury. Bijendra, who had retired from a Dhanbad coal field office in 2015, was taken to Gaya while Ravi was sent to Patna for treatment. Bijendra died on the way to the hospital.
Ravi, who was posted in Jalandhar in Punjab, had come to Arwal's Kaler to attend a wedding ceremony.
Taking a serious note of the incident, deputy inspector-general (Magadh range) Vinay Kumar visited the spot and took stock of the situation on Thursday. Later, Vinay told The Telegraph that two separate FIRs had been lodged with the Haspura police station in Aurangabad district in connection with the incident.
While the first FIR was related to robbery at a jewellery shop, the second FIR dealt with thrashing of two persons by an unruly mob, leading to one's death.
Devendra Singh, the brother of the deceased, has made 15 persons as named accused, who were absconding after the incident.
Aurangabad superintendent of police (SP) Satya Prakash said on Friday that the robbery in the shop would be solved at the earliest. "We are close to cracking the robbery case. It's just a matter of time. The police have got vital clues," he said.
The station house officer (SHO) of Haspura police station, Arun Kumar, said lynching of the army jawan and his relative was a fallout of mistaken identity. "Had the police not intervened timely, both men would have been killed," he said. The incident is likely to snowball into a major political controversy as the main opposition party - the RJD - is set to launch an agitation in protest against the violence.
