Patna, April 16: Two persons, including a jawan of the special auxiliary police (SAP), were killed when a group of protesters attacked a police team at Bhawanandpur village under Birpur police station in Begusarai district on Saturday.
The deceased cop, identified as Umashankar Rai, is said to be a resident of Simari village in Buxar district. The other deceased has been identified as Bullu Yadav, a resident of Bhawanandpur.
Begusarai superintendent of police (SP) Kshatranil Singh said about 150 people attacked the police team which had gone to the spot to remove huts erected on a plot of land. The attackers, who were armed with lethal weapons, caught hold of Rai when he tried to rescue fellow jawans, who were allegedly held captive by the land grabbers.
While other police personnel took shelter in the anti-riot vehicle, Rai was brutally beaten up by the alleged land grabbers. “Raids are on to arrest the marauders,” the SP said, adding a self-loading rifle allotted to the deceased SAP jawan was also missing.
Police said a group of people had erected huts on land belonging to Ram Ujagar Singh and Ram Baharam Singh, said to be residents of neighbouring Panapur village, on Thursday. A complaint was lodged by the landowners in this connection with the Birpur police station on Friday.
Acting on the complaint, a police team was sent to the spot for removing the huts erected by alleged land grabbers. “The residents of Bhawanandpur attacked the police with weapons. The police had to make a hasty retreat,” a local resident said.
The SP said additional armed police force has been deployed at the village as a precautionary measure. He also denied the report of police firing. “The situation is tense but under control,” Singh added.
In another incident, Pawan Kumar, a cleaner of a private bus, was dragged out from a running vehicle and subsequently murdered near Ram Lakhan Path on New Bypass Road under the Kankerbagh police station in Patna on Saturday morning. The victim is said to be a resident of Darbhanga. The reason behind the murder of Kumar is yet to be ascertained.
