Gangster Navin Yadav’s death after arrest snowballs into controversy

B N Singh Pappan

Saharsa : Police officials, who had arrested notorious criminal Navin Yadav of village Sirrahi on April 22, 2017, from a maize field at village Navtolia under Sonbersa Raj police station in Saharsa district, have come under the scanner after he died at Patna Medical College Hospital (PMCH) on May 2, 2017, as his family members and villagers have alleged that he was mercilessly beaten up in the police lock up after his arrest hence referred to Patna for treatment.

Navin’s family members and supporters refused to accept his body when it reached Sirrahi on May 3, 2017. They instead blocked road at Bhavatia bazaar causing tension to police officials who had arrested Navin. Navin’s kin, in a representation made to SDO, Saharsa, and SDPO, Saharsa, on May 3, 2017, have sought to know why he was kept in the police lock-up after his arrest in good physical condition instead of judicial custody. Sensing gravity of the situation, police officials who had arrested him have started passing the buck on the other.

SHO, Sonbersa Raj police station, Mohd Ijhar Alam, has asserted that SP, Saharsa, DSP, Saharsa, and DSP, Simribakhtiarpur, and some other police officials were present on the spot from where Navin was arrested. SHO Alam refused to give an undertaking that Navin was arrested in good physical condition. Simribakhtiarpur DSP Ajay Narayan Yadav was present near the maize field but his name does not figure in the representation made by Navin’s kin.