Gopalganj SHOs were not in uniform during Paroo visit

Alok Mishra & Dr K K Kaushik

Gopalganj/ Muzaffarpur: Murderous attacks on a Gopalganj police team comprising two SHOs and a homeguard jawan at village Khenpur in Muzaffarpur district on January 10 has shocked senior police officials of the district, who were busy  collecting information about the incident and steps taken after that.

Police sources revealed that on January 3, 2017, a truck laden with Haryana liquor was on way to Muzaffarpur and it stopped at Balthari Check-post and took a permit of potatoes. As the truck reached Bhatwa Mor, a police team led by Kuchaikot police station SHO Mahendra Kumar tried to intercept the truck. Though the driver of the truck tried to escape with the vehicle, police team intercepted it and seized 7,140 bottles of IMFL in 445 cartons from0 the vehicle. Truck driver Ashok Singh, a native of Punjab, was also arrested there and an FIR was lodged with Kuchaikot ps in this connection.

Acting on the revelations made by Ashok Singh, a police team of Gopalganj on January 10 reached Khanpur under Paroo police station in Muzaffarpur in search of Zila Parshad Munna Singh and Ajay Singh. Police said that during raids, supporters of liquor mafias, armed with lethal weapons, made murderous attack on the police team causing serious injuries to Kuchaikot ps SHO Mahendra Kumar and Mohammadpur ps SHO Munna Kumar and a homeguard jawan Krishna Kumar.

As the news of the murderous attack reached Gopalganj, SP Ravi Ranjan Kumar rushed a police team to Muzaffarpur to carry out raids there against the liquor mafias.

Police sources said that the police team had gone to Paroo in civies and this gave advantage to the liquor mafias. The Gopalganj police team did not apprise the local police about the raid. Sources said had the team members gone in police uniform, the people would not have dared attack them.

It may be mentioned here that till date, four trucks carrying liquor have been seized at Balthari check-post. Barring one truck, all the three seized trucks belonged to Muzaffarpur based liquor mafias. Earlier also, a Gopalganj police team had gone to Kanti in Muzaffarpur to carry out raid there. They had to return empty handed.