Alok Mishra
Gopalganj: Agitated over the arrest and rumour of kidnapping of Gopalganj Zila Parishad member Subash Singh, a large 0number of people blocked NH-28 and paralysed the movement of long distant vehicles for several hours on January 5. Local MP Janak Ram also reached Banjari Mor. He, however, returned when he came to know that Singh 5had been arrested by the Town police station.
A police team on Thursday arrested Singh on charge of creating riot like situation during immersion of idol of Goddess Durga after Durga Puja in 20116 in which a violent mob had set ablaze several vehicles at Turkaha and also made er murderous attack on Sadar Inspector Nigam Kumar. An FIR was then lodged against hundreds of person including Bhitarwa resident and Zila Parishad member in this connection.
Police said that soon after the arrest of Zila Parishad member, a rumour spread that he had been abducted. A large number of people assembled in front of Town police station and also blocked NH-28. Though the cops announced that Singh had been arrested, the matter aggravated as some local leaders including former chairman, Zila Parishad, Omprakash Singh, students’ leader Sachin Singh and Paltu Kumar with their supporters reached there.
The mob protested the arrest of their leaders and alleged that he had been transferred to some other police station from Town police station.Town ps Inspector Baleshwar Rai pacified the people and assured them that Singh would be kept at Town police station. Sensing the gravity of the situation, cops from neighbouring police stations were deployed in and around the Town police station as the people were demanding immediate presence of Gopalganj SP. The agitation started at around 11.30 am and lasted till 1.30 pm.
Locals said that some policemen in civies reached Banjari locality and caught Zila Parishad member Subhash Singh and sped away from there on Singh’s Scorpio. The cops also took Singh’s driver with them. Some of the locals, who witnessed the high voltage drama, mistook it to be a case of kidnapping of Singh by some criminals. Rumour spread in entire Gopalganj town area like wild fire and a large number of people reached Banjari Chowk.
Local MP Janak Ram had a talk with Gopalganj SP. Later, a SI Santosh Kumar rang up the local MP and informed him that Singh had been arrested in connection with a case of rioting and he had been taken to Mohammadpur by the cops. Some of the locals complained that cops should have gone to arrest Singh in uniform. Later, cops produced Singh before a local court that forwarded him to judicial custody. The rumour of kidnapping also had its impact on movement of vehicles as autos and local buses went off the road. The plying of vehicles started in the evening.