The Bihar Legislative Assembly witnessed uproarious scenes both within and outside the House on Monday over the kidnap and murder of a 12-year-old boy in Patna district, with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) targeting the government over the law and order situation in the state.
As soon as the House began its proceedings, the Opposition BJP legislators trooped into the well, shouting slogans.
The charred body of the boy, who was allegedly abducted on March 16 from near his house in rural Patna, was recovered near Bihta ESIC hospital on Sunday. Police on Sunday said that a former tuition teacher of the deceased has been arrested in the case. The abductor used the boy’s mobile phone and demanded ₹40 lakh as ransom through a WhatsApp call and text messages, and also threatened his father not to reveal the incident to anyone, police added.
“All that had been forgotten have returned to haunt the state. Extortion, kidnapping, murder and loot are being reported regularly, but the government is helpless, as it knows how and why such incidents have witnessed a sudden spurt. If anti-socials will get protection, they will only get emboldened,” said leader of Opposition Vijay Kumar Sinha.
Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MLA Bhai Birendra’s accusation that there was a BJP link to the Bihta murder further angered the BJP leaders. “The BJP wants such incidents to take place so that they could defame the government,” Birendra said.
BJP MLA Pawan Jaiswal said, “Initially only trailers were apparent, but now the entire film is visible, with kidnaps being followed with murder”. He also raised the case of a missing doctor of Patna’s Nalanda Medical College Hospital (NMCH). Jaiswal said the doctor was initially suspected to have died by suicide after jumping into the Ganga, but his body could not be found till date.
“Bihar needs Yogi model to control law and order situation,” Jaiswal said referring to Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath. “(Chief minister) Nitish Kumar is competent person and he had done it between 2005 and 2010. But now he seems to have lost control over the administration due to growing pressure from the alliance partner,” he added.
Outside the Vidhan Sabha also, BJP leaders shouted slogan at the main entrance with placards and banners. “The government is a mute spectator, while the anti-socials are ruling the roost. Nitish Kumar is unable to act,“ said BJP legislator Tar Kishor Prasad.
Though Speaker Awadh Bihari Choudhary managed to calm them down and continued with the Question hour, the leader of Opposition again raised the issue of abduction of another boy, son of a doctor in Muzaffarpur, who was later recovered safely. It came to light that the boy had been abducted for ransom.
During the Zero Hour, Sinha said that a minister had been named in the first information report (FIR) in the case and he was present in the House. “The CM is also here. I had moved an adjournment motion on the matter, but it was turned down . The minister has been accused of threatening the family members,” he said, but the Speaker did not allow him to continue and continued with the proceedings. Later, Sinha walked out of the House alone.
During the question hour, Kumar intervened during a question from the BJP’s Nitish Mishra on how many sports persons had been appointed during the last seven years. “It was started during the tenure of former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee, when I was in his Cabinet. We are doing it in Bihar also. We have started the process,” he added.
He also referred to another question regarding more relaxation in height for police job to women from the extremely backward classes and Scheduled Caste. “We will see what can be done in this regard,” he said.
