Union Minister and MP from Bihar’s Ujiyarpur, Nityanand Rai on Friday hit out at chief minister Nitish Kumar over the killing of journalist Vimal Kumar. Nityanand Rai said that the state government was protecting the miscreants and that law and order had failed in the state under the Janata Dal United Chief. “It’s very sad. Journalist Vimal Kumar has been murdered by the miscreants. I would like to pay homage to him. Law and Order have failed in Bihar. Miscreants are not scared of anything as they are getting protection from the state government and the members of the JDU and RJD parties,” he said.
On being questioned about Nitish Kumar’s statement over the low crime rates in Bihar, the Union Minister said told ANI, “Nitish ji, your government completed one year tenure this August but more than 3,000 killings have happened in the state in this period… and you talk about numbers?” he questioned.
The state BJP president Samrat Choudhary also attacked the JD(U) leader over the incident. He said, “Criminals are roaming freely while innocent citizens, including journalists, and even police personnel are being killed in Bihar… What has happened in Araria is, indeed, tragic. But such incidents have become the norm since the ‘ghamandia’ (arrogant) Mahagathbandhan led by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and RJD supremo Lalu Prasad formed the government in the state.”
Four unidentified assailants shot dead a 40-year-old journalist at Raniganj in Bihar’s Araria district on Friday morning. The journalist, Vimal, was a witness to the murder of his brother in 2019. Speaking about the incident Additional Director General of Bihar police, J.S. Gangwar said, “Journalist Vimal Yadav was shot by the unknown accused. After getting the information of the incident Raniganj police station sent the body for postmortem. Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) and dog squad are called to the incident site. From the information received through relatives we got to know that in 2019, Vimal’s brother was also killed. The trial was ongoing and the deceased’s testimony was yet to happen. Relatives are suggesting this as the reason for the murder. Araria police are on the site and doing the investigations.”
(With agencies’ inputs)
