Students take out a candle march in protest in Patna and (above) Sushil Kumar Modi consoles an old lady in Bagaha on Wednesday. Pictures by Ranjeet Kumar Dey and Awadh Kishor Tiwari

Bagaha, June 26: Sushil Kumar Modi today visited family members of police firing victims, mounting further pressure on chief minister Nitish Kumar.

“The chief minister is busy mustering majority and poaching legislators of other parties and has no time for administration. Governance has become a casualty in Bihar after parting company with the BJP,” Modi said.

“The police fired over 50 rounds though there was no evidence of pre-firing violence… This is the biggest police firing incident during Nitish’s reign,” he said, adding that policemen responsible for firing on “innocent” tribals should be booked under Section 302 (murder) of the IPC.

At least six persons of the Tharu tribe were allegedly killed during police firing on a mob in Mahuawa Katharwa village under Naurangia police station on Monday.

Modi visited the house of every victim belonging to Mahuawa Katharwa, Semra Ghusukpur, Deotaha, Dardari and Semri Dih villages and expressed his sympathy with the family members. He supported the Tharus’ claim of Rs 10 lakh to the family of each deceased, Rs 1.5 lakh to those seriously injured and Rs 1 lakh to others who had also sustained injuries during the firing.

Terming the police firing incident “brutal and heart rendering”, Modi said: “Now anything is possible in a government headed by Nitish, because the BJP is no more a partner of the JD(U) to maintain our principles of checks and balance in governance.”

On behalf of the BJP, the former deputy chief minister also promised every support to people fighting for justice against police atrocity. He also told the villagers that he would raise the issue in the Assembly’s monsoon session starting July 26. His party would disrupt normal business of the Assembly till the government did justice to the victims, Modi added.

The CPI(ML)-Liberation called a bandh today that witnessed complete shutdown in the Tharu-dominated Harnatand area of Bagaha. However, in rest of the areas, there was not much effect of the bandh. West Champaran superintendent of police Sunil Kumar said the bandh was peaceful and no untoward incident was reported from anywhere in the district.

A probe team of the CPI under Begusarai MLA Awadhesh Rai also visited the members of the bereaved families and gathered information about the incident as well as of the circumstances leading to the firing.

In Patna, Lok Janshakti Party president Ram Vilas Paswan strongly condemned the incident. Terming it “part of the Nitish government’s failure in maintaining law and order”, the Rajya Sabha member demanded Rs 20 lakh as compensation to the family members of the victims. Paswan said: “The government should lodge an FIR under Section 302 of the IPC against the police personnel involved in the incident.”

Besides Modi, the BJP team included Bettiah MP Sanjay Jaiswal, MLAs Chandra Mohan Rai, Dilip Verma, Bhagirathi Devi and Satish Dubey. Modi also visited the injured persons at a Bettiah hospital.