Satish Sharma
Bettiah : Members of a self styled criminal gang ` Royal’ exploded a bomb on the gate of residence of Dr N N Shahi, a reputed physician and district president of ruling JD(U) on Friday night and pasted a threatening letter on the gate in new colony locality. The criminals have asked him to pay Rs 35 lakh before June 7 failing which he will be eliminated. Dr Shahi being district president of JD(U) has not lodged any FIR with police in this regard so far.
ASP Rajesh Kkumar rushed to the spot with force after the explosion and recovered scattered bomb
splinters besides seizing the threatening letter. West Champaran SP Vinay Kumar said that a special team of police has been constituted to investigate the case and nab the criminals. Dr Shahi is senior leader of JD(U) and had contested unsuccessfully the 2015 assembly elections on party ticket from Chanpatiya constituency and is considered close to Bihar CM Nitish Kumar . The police have provided
two armed bodyguards to Dr Shahi after the incident.
The members of Royal gang have unleashed terror in Bettiah town for the last two months. They had made a murderous attack on a trader in Haribatika locality on May 21 and left a letter asking him to pay extortion amount. On May 26, they pasted a threatening letter on the shutter of a medical shop in bus stand area. They had also demanded Rs 10 lakh from a sand trader recently. The police has failed to identify the members of the gang so far. On Saturday night, the criminals looted a bag containing Rs 6 .5 lakh at gun point from a trader Sarfaraz Ahmad when he was locking his shop near Haribatika cross road and escaped.