Kumar Rajiv Nayan
Ara : An FIR has been lodged against 120 named and 500 unnamed persons at Barhara police station in Bhojpur district in connection with arson and rampage at Barhara on March 5, 2017, after the death of one Chhena Tatawa in police custody on March 4. Police also rounded up 11 persons including women for interrogation on March 6. The FIR was lodged late March 5 night.
Bhojpur SP Kshatranil Singh said that anti-social elements would be identified on the basis of video footage of March 5 incident in which a furious mob had set afire Barhara police station, several police vehicles and documents besides vandalising the block office to protest the custodial death of Chhena. The SP said the women would be released but the rest would be sent to jail. The SP said that some anti-social elements hatched conspiracy and went on rampage and arson on March 5.
After the death of a mason in police custody on March 4, hundreds of including women and children gheraoed Barhara police station on March 5 with the body of the deceased and pelted cops with stones. Police resorted to lathicharge in which over four dozen persons were injured. Police had to fire in the air to disperse the unruly mob. The mob also fired on police and vehicle of Barahara CO Sumit Kumar Singh though he escaped unhurt.
Police had arrested Chhena Tatawa in a drunken state on March 4 after his daughter Nitu Tatawa complained that her father uses filthy language and tries to outrage her modesty in drunken state and took him to Barhara police station but the arrested person died in police custody. Police said that Chhena Tatawa alias Ramjas Tatawa, 38, son of Paras Tatawa jumped down from the running vehicle and succumbed to his injuries but his daughter Nita Tatawa and wife Shobhanti Devi accused police of assaulting him resulting in his death.
SDPO, Ara, Sanjay Kumar said that Chhena Tatawa tried to escape from the running police and jumped off the vehicle sustaining head injuries. He said that Nitu Tatawa, daughter of the deceased, had complained to police in writing that her father always used filthy language and forced her to marry him when in drunken state.