Losing power and post can deprive you of social security if former legislators are to be believed.
Till a few years ago, their residences used to be fortresses, with personnel guarding them from people pouring in their houses with diverse requests. However, now the out-of-power legislators residing in Kautilya Nagar are victims of frequent robberies that have been haunting the area for more than two years now.
Tired, frustrated and miffed with the “government’s failure” to nab the robbers by the collar, around 20 former MPs, MLAs and ministers protested outside the Assembly on Monday to emit their anger.
Clad in crisp white kurtas, the once-powerful politicians, mostly from the RJD, sat on the dharna claiming that the locality under Airport police station has been deprived of patrolling. Some termed the thefts a ploy of the state government and a few shifted base, heeding to the free run of the criminals.
A robbery on Saturday at the residence of former minister Brij Kishore Singh had fuelled their fury that led to the protest.
The criminals had taken the caretaker of the house hostage and looted electronics goods and other valuables worth lakhs. Singh and his family were at their native village in Motihari when the robbers struck. On August 24, former Congress MLA Harihar Mahto, a resident of the same locality, was robbed too.
Srinarayan Yadav, the former urban development minister during the RJD regime, said the situation has gone out of control for the police.
“In the past two years, there have been more than 200 incidents of theft in the area. Now, it has snowballed into robberies. A year back, thieves took away the battery of my car, which was parked outside my house,” Yadav said.
He added: “In none of the cases, the police have been able to make a breakthrough. This locality is a VIP area and if the police cannot ensure security, one can imagine the situation in other parts of Patna.”
The tale-tell of Sitaram Singh, a former RJD MP, sounded even scarier.
“On January 25, a group of 12 to 15 criminals entered my house, locked up the residence’s caretaker, my family members and carried out a burglary for an hour. I was not in the house,” Singh said.
“On the same night two other houses in the locality were looted too. No one has been arrested so far in these cases. The condition is such that the police misbehave with us whenever we file a complaint,” he alleged.
Seeking a solution, Ashok Kumar Singh, the former tourism minister in the RJD government, suggested that at least two police pickets should be placed in the locality.
“The area needs two police pickets. The cops have not been able to solve a single case of robbery. It seems they are hand-in-glove with the criminals. This is a VIP area and it has to be safe. We don’t hear of criminal incidents in areas like the Circular Road, where the sitting ministers stay,” Singh said.
The complaints, however, were not just from the Opposition’s side.
Santosh Kumar Mishra, the grandson of veteran BJP leader and former Gujarat Governor Kailashpati Mishra, who also stays in the same locality, said: “The police get a lot of complaints but no one pays any heed to what we say.”
Former RJD MLA Gauri Shankar Nagdansh, who had shifted to Delhi, said he was forced to leave his house in the area because of frequent break-ins.
“I had no other option because criminals were ruling the roost in the area,” he told The Telegraph from Delhi.
Former Congress MLA Harkhu Jha, former ministers in the RJD regime, Akhlaq Ahmed and Suresh Paswan, said the government should sit up and act.
“There should be continuous police patrolling. Those involved in criminal incidents should be arrested immediately. We will take up the issue if the situation remains the same,” Jha said.
The police, on the other hand, said they are doing their bit to curb the crime incidents in the area.
“Police are aware about the incidents and patrolling in the area has been tightened. Steps will be taken to ensure that the criminals are behind bars,” city superintendent of police Jayant Kant said on Monday.
