Satish Aditya
Motihari : Four unidentified bike borne criminals on March 16, 2021, reached a private fertiliser shop located near Matiarwa Kothi village Chowk under Harsidhi police station (PS) in East Champaran District in North Bihar and fired indiscriminately firing on Pawan Gupta, 40, in broad daylight killing him on the spot.
Pawan Gupta was Chairman, Primary Agriculture Credit Society (PACS) under Matiarwa panchayat, and was running a shop at his village. He was taken to Primary Health Centre (PHC), Harsidhi, where the doctor declared him brought dead. According to police, one of the assailants Anil Sahani and Mukhia of Matiariwa Gram panchaya Surendra Singh were arrested in connection with the murder of Pawan Gupta.
After killing Pawan Gupta, the four assailants tried to escape from the spot but one of them was caught by the villagers with his motorcycle on the road . The mob torched his motorcycle, thrashed him, and locked him in a room to hand him over to police. The irtae villagers blocked Matiarwa –Hasidhi road protesting the cold blooded murder of Pawan Gupta.
In the mean time, Shailendra Kumar Singh, SHO, Harsidhi PS, reached there on jeep and the mob started pelting cops with stones and bricks in which around a dozen policemen including SDPO, Areraj, Jyoti Prakash, sustained injuries. The policemen were chased by the mob for some time , according to SHO Shailendra Kumar Singh. All the injured police officials and constables were taken to Sadar Hospital, Motihari and given first aid. SDPO Jyoti Prakash sustained leg injury in the incident.
Around five police stations officers along with force reached the spot and controlled the situation. Police resorted to lathicharge and conducted raids at the village and arrested 40 persons for attacking police force, according to SDPO Jyoti Prakash.
East Champaran SP Navin Chandra Jha, who is camping at the spot, said the situation was under control . According to police , one of the criminals ho was caught by villagers has been identified as Anil Sahni. Police quizzed him and he revealed that they were given Supari (contract) to kill Pawan Gupta allegedly by Surendra Singh, Mukhiya of Matiarawa Gram panchayat, as Pawan Gupta was an aspirant for the Mukhiya post in the coming elections. Police swung into action and
arrested Surendra Singh. Anil Sahni and Surendra Singh, Mukhiya, were remanded to judicial custody. The situation is quite tense at village Matiarwa but under control as police force is camping there to maintain law and order in the area .