Patna, Aug. 31: A sinking feeling has gripped the people of Bihar with criminals striking at will, a reminder of the “jungle raj” days of yore.

“I am regretting the day my wife and I decided to return to my hometown Motihari,” said Dr Deepak Kumar, a 37-year-old physician who, along with his wife Dr Seema Sinha, gave up their jobs in New Delhi to return to Bihar five years ago on hearing of Nitish Kumar’s susashan (good governance).

Instead, the couple rue their decision. They have been forced to quit their government jobs out of fear and the blasé attitude of the administration.

From July 20-22, Dr Kumar received three extortion calls, each demanding Rs 10 lakh. The police traced the call to a criminal Rajan Sahni, who was arrested and jailed.

However, the Sahni gang gunned down another man, Ganesh Singh, on August 5. The gang had demanded extortion money from Singh.

This sent a chill down the spine of the doctors. “On August 11, I got a call saying that if I did not pay up, I will meet the same fate,” Dr Kumar said.

The couple were provided with a solitary security guard, which did not instil much confidence. Dr Kumar appealed to the authorities that he be exempt from emergency duty during night hours. The plea was not accepted. His request for an arms licence is pending with the district magistrate’s office for over two years.

The couple quit their government job on August 21. Dr Kumar keeps his visit of his clinic restricted. “Even my two sons, aged seven and five, have stopped going to school,” the doctor said, stressing that he not only felt unsafe in Motihari but in the whole of Bihar.

“I think we will quit Bihar,” he said. The fact that his wife is a batchmate of Lalu Prasad’s eldest daughter Misa Bharati and hails from Nalanda, the home district of chief minister Nitish Kumar, does not help.

In Patna, businessmen Rajkishore Chaurasia got a letter on June 13 demanding extortion money of Rs 5 lakh and received two threat calls on his phone. Three applications to the local police and 88 days later, he is still running around to get an FIR lodged.

The police have refused to accept his FIR on the pretext of carrying out preliminary investigations. The schools where his two sons study have asked him to keep his children at home.

“The police actually scoffed at me for going to the media, saying it would not help. My sons are living with their grandparents and I just don’t know what to do,” said a desperate Chaurasia.

The state capital leads in crime. On August 6, the 50-year-old wife of a retired chief engineer with the electricity board was found murdered at her home in P.C. Colony of Kankerbagh. Snatching and thefts are common.

Suddenly the boast of Nitish Kumar and his deputy, Sushil Modi, that Patna is a safe city for women rings hollow. “Compared to 2006, I feel more unsafe now. I do not venture out after 8pm,” said Bharati Mukherjee, a school teacher.

During the 2010 Assembly elections, women came out in large numbers to vote for Nitish because of the sense of security he provided. It was ironic that on Thursday, several women’s organisations took out a march protesting against crime against women.

It is not about statistics. Rather it’s about the insensitiveness of the police and the brazen manner in which criminals are having their say that alarms the people.

Already, the joke doing the rounds in political circles is that crime increases everytime Nitish holds a meeting on law and order. “It’s still not as bad as it was during the Lalu-Rabri era when crime was politically motivated. But unless checked, the situation could snowball into a huge problem for Nitish,” said Patna resident Amit Tripathi.

Director-general of police Abhayanand said several initiatives have been taken to ensure a change in the quality of investigation.

“The incidents of crime are being reported to the police stations. But as far as the complaints of crime against women are concerned, a number of them have turned out to be false in the course of investigation,” he said.

The sinking feeling appears to be prevalent throughout the state. On Friday, teenaged criminals blatantly looted and killed scrap dealer Ravi Kumar (25) at a spot very close to the residence of the inspector-general of police (Muzaffarpur). Bhagalpur has witnessed a spurt in crime, as has Darbhanga.

Vinod Kumar, a senior citizen and resident of Alalpatti in Darbhanga town, told The Telegraph: “In recent years, the sense of security has drastically dwindled as no one feels safe to go out after 10pm. Incidents of snatching — of chains, money and other valuables — have risen. So have more heinous crimes like murder, rape and kidnapping. Victims are scared of going to the police as they don’t have any faith in the administration.”