Bihar Police

The New DGP would resume his duties as early as tomorrow.

Others affected by the latest bureaucratic switcheroo are Additional Director General (ADG), Police Building Construction and Commissioner of the para-military Reserve Anand Shankar who now moves to the Bihar State Electricity Board as its new DG; ADG D. N. Gautam who has been transferred to the Police Headquarters.

ADG Abhyanand, also the co-founder of Super-30, an IIT preparatory institute for youths from impoverished backgrounds, will assume duties as the ADG (BMP).

Shafi Alam (ADG BMP) will assume charges of Training while Ashok Kumar Gupta (ADG Weak Sections) will be responsible for Police Building Construction Corporation.

ADG Leema Imchen, currently ADG Training, will now be the ADG of Technical Services.

Among others affected by today's restructuring of Bihar police are ADG Home Guard R. R. Verma, IG Technical Services A. C. Verma, Patna IG Rajvardhan Sharma, IG Provision Sunit Kumar, IG BMP A. K. Seth, IG Headquarters Ravindra Kumar, IG Girjanandan Sharma, Patna DIG Sunil Kumar, DIG Gupteshwar Pandey and DIG Shatrughan Prasad Singh.

Shivchandra Jha, the new DGP of Bihar, a 1969-batch IPS officer, however is scheduled to retire from service on July 31.

The vulnerability of Banke Bazar police station is something that everyone here is aware of. Understandably so, as it is located just on the brink of the region beyond which the outlawed Maoists hold fort.

• For the past two months, the police station has remained in darkness as the kerosene generator is out of order and there's no mechanic to repair it.

• Availability of electricity is less than two hours a day.

• There is only one jeep for the entire station. Even this gives up as maintenance cost is difficult to get.

• The phone line of the station lies disconnected for the past four months due to non-payment of bills.

• The officer-in-charge does not have an official mobile and uses his private set for communication.

• Wireless set is in working condition but charging its battery becomes difficult due to lack of power.

• The police station does not have any anti-landmine vehicle or mine-detecting devices. The only hope in case of a Naxal attack rests with the CRPF camp 15 km west at Imamganj on the same road.

Ironically, this sense of fear is all-pervading despite the fact that Banke Bazar is among the best-equipped police stations in the Naxal heartland of Bihar. It has a strength of 20 jawans (16 constables and four head constables) of the BMP armed with SLRs and carbines. The police station on the Sherghati-Imamganj state highway has a concrete building, two watch towers and a fortified boundary wall. The compound houses the headquarter of BMP-1 where at any given time 20 "Gurkha"

jawans stand guard.

Thirty-six districts in Bihar are divided in to nine police ranges. Six districts, which include Muzaffarpur, Sitamarhi, Vaishali, Sheohar, East and West Champaran, fall under the Tirhut range. In December 2007 the police in this range introduced a unique on-line FIR system -- which has received a lukewarm response from the public.

So far, the district police have received dozen-odd cases, including some lodged by non-resident Bihar people. Most cases were about extortion and threats.

Talking to The Telegraph, deputy inspector-general of police (Tirhut range) Arvind Pandey said: "Sub-section 3 of Section 154 of the CrPC states that a letter of complaint addressed to superintendent of police or senior officers can be converted into an FIR, if the offence is cognisable."

And, this happenned at Mahnar on Saturday when locals squatted on Mahnar-Samastipur Road at Patel Chowk demanding immediate arrest of those involved in the tonsuring of a woman, Asha Devi, last Saturday.

Manoje Nath, additional director general-cum-Civil Defence Commissioner, Anand Shankar, ADG, Bihar Police Construction Corporation were promoted to the rank of director general in the same departments.

The DG Bihar State Sports Authority, Shiv Chandra Jha, has been made DG-cum-Commandant General of the Home Guards and Fire Service. This post was being held by the present director general of police, Ashish Ranjan Sinha, ever since the suspension of Narayan Mishra.

Principal Secretary (Home) Afzal Amanullah said after DSP- level transfers, there would be complete overhaul of the set-up at the police station level.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, rattled by the current spate of lynching incidents and growing vigilantism, recently issued a warning to police officials of the State to "perform or perish".

Shahabuddin, who had been a law unto himself in Siwan for the past 23 years since 1984, was recently awarded life imprisonment for abducting CPI-ML worker Chote Lal Gupta in 1997.

In a major breakthrough, the police yesterday arrested Rajesh Choudhary, who is the husband of sitting JD(U) MLA Renu Devi.

Acting on a tipoff, a joint team of the Special Task Force(STF) and police picked up Rajesh as soon as he alighted at the Patna junction from the Howrah-Danapur Express. At the time of the arrest, his wife was also accompanying him.

Rajesh was wanted in over two dozen crime cases and was evading arrest by allegedly using his political clout. Muzzafarpur and Sitamari were Rajesh's area of operations.

This was preceded by the arrest of former RJD MLA from Atri in Gaya Rajendra Yadav on Monday. A jail bird, Rajendra, had made a sensational escape from judicial custody in December last year.

Rajendra presently has 18 cases instituted against him ranging from murders to abductions. He was already facing trial in a Gaya fast track court in some cases before he managed to escape.

The Atri and Bathani areas of Gaya district were regarded as Rajendra's fiefdom. His clout in the area could be assessed from the fact that despite being on the run in a murder case, he managed the victory of his wife Kunti Devi from Gaya in 2005 elections.

Sources in the police said trial was almost complete against suspended JD(U) MLA from Piro Sunil Pandey who was facing charges of extortion, besides his drunken brawl in a city hotel where he allegedly threatened to shoot the cameraman of a news channel for shooting his misconduct.

The initiative, started earlier this year, is part of measures announced by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to provide education to the poorest kids as well.

While over 18,500 children were registered in schools in January and February, as many as 52,699 were enrolled in March, according to informed sources in the police headquarters here.

The campaign received overwhelming success in Vaishali district where 19,627 children were sent to school till March 31. Following it were Rohtas (5,841), Sitamarhi (3,899) and Lakhisarai district (3,790).

Tiwary`s subsequent interrogation by a joint team of the UP and the Bihar police in the past two days again revealed how the Indo-Nepal border was posing serious threat to the internal security of the country, besides precipitating general law and order problem.

Another noted gangster and a close aide of the `D'company, Fazl-ur-Rahaman,who hailed from Darbhanga in Bihar, was arrested in last August from the Indo-Nepal border.This was preceded by the arrests of the two prime suspects of Mumbai blasts in local train in July from Madhubani which was again located on the Indo-Nepal border.

The UP police had announced Rs 5 lakh award for Rishimuni Tiwary who was evading arrest for past few years.

Sources in the police disclosed that during the interrogation Tiwary admitted of having gifted a watch worth Rs 5 lakh to Chota Rajan in Nepal a few years back, besides his involvement in over half-a-dozen sensational kidnapping cases.

Yadav also awarded the Presidential police medal to the RPF's very first female officer Jaya Singh Chauhan and a posthumous award to RPF co-director B. K. Rai who died in the line of duty.

The Railways would constitute a committee to explore the needs for more reservation centers in all metro areas and would invest more money in the modernization of railway equipment and facilities, the Railway Minister said.

Yadav also accorded the status of National Training Center to the Jagjiwan Ram RPF Academy in Lucknow saying this would allow the center to obtain more central funding to further strengthen its functioning and operations.

Inspector General of Police (Administration) Anil Sinha said the training of the first batch began Monday.

He said the 120 cops, including 20 officers, began their "military style training" at the Danapur Cantonment near Patna.

This is the first time that such a training programme is being undertaken. The group will also be sent to police training centres in Warrengate in Manipur and Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh where they will be acquainted with state-of-the-art techniques in guerrilla warfare, quick response actions, bomb defusing and other skills, Sinha said.

The training in Manipur and Madhya Pradesh would begin in September.

Another similar move to combat Maoists and increasing crime is the formation of the Special Auxiliary Police (SAP), comprising retired army personnel. The elite team of experienced soldiers, who have joined hands with state police, began operations a few months ago.

Till now, about 3,500 retired Indian Army personnel have been recruited for the SAP and have been deployed at various sensitive areas across Bihar.

"The SAP is a successful experiment in dealing with criminals and Maoists," said Abhayanand, additional director general of police.

The idea of the SAP had been mooted by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in February.

"We have separate kitchens for Yadavs, Rajputs, Bhumihars, Brahmins and Harijans. These are the names given to different kitchens," Mahesh Shah a cook with the Patna police line said.

Allegedly, 'dalit kitchen' is the only place where dalit cops are allowed to have their meals.

"There is a separate kitchen for the dalits. They can have meals there," Police Constable Ramparveesh Kumar said.

Kitchens divided on castes, is a tradition that has been followed for the past many years in the police stations in Bihar, said sources.

The high-level police officials deny the allegation though. Kundan Krishnan Senior SP, Patna said, "There are no separate caste kitchens. We've separate kitchens for the simple reason that cooks can manage food for only 50 people at a time. This gives way to the division."

This non-plan scheme for modernisation will also help improve police communication system, introduce more scientific aids to investigation and upgrade the department's data processing abilities, besides helping in modernising office equipments.

The SOG would be a composite group comprising 60 to 70 men drawn from the local district police, Bihar military police, paramilitary police and the special task force (Cheetah). Efforts are on to include some personnel from the State intelligence agency too.

The main thrust behind constituting these groups similar to those operational in Jammu and Kashmir, is to remove the barriers of jurisdiction.

To begin with, four teams of SOG are being set up in Masaurhi and Paliganj areas of Patna rural, which have contiguous borders with Arwal and Jehanabad police districts. This region is considered to be a den of PWG extremists.

And before the police act, he just disappears. The DIG, against whom a warrant of arrest has been issued in connection with a property dispute case registered in Hajipur, attended his office on Monday.

But before the Vaishali and Patna police carried out a joint raid at his office and residence on Tuesday morning, he disappeared. In fact, the police swung into action after Verma appeared on TV news channels.

Additional director-general, vigilance, Neelamani said the bureau had laid a trap for the officer in-charge of Shahpur police station in Patna after being tipped off that he was supposed to collect his booty from Shivam Apartment near Shyamal Hospital.

As soon as Singh pocketed the money, vigilance officials in plain clothes, caught him. Singh had struck a deal for Rs 4 lakh to let off criminal Satish Pandey, wanted in several car theft cases.

A vehicle lifter, Satish sold stolen cars on the basis of fake documents. Singh met Satish through his brother Munna Pandey and threatened to kill the gangster if he did not cough up Rs 4 lakh. Singh also told Satish that he had been awarded for "a successful encounter" and he would not hesitate to "eliminate one more".

An intimidated Satish gave Singh Rs 35,000 in cash and a gold chain. "But Singh asked him to arrange for Rs 4 lakh and the deal was struck. Unable to arrange the money, Satish's mother called up the vigilance bureau and the sleuths laid a trap to snare him," said Neelmani.

At 8 p.m. on Monday, Singh reached Satish's house to collect the money. As soon as he accepted the money, the vigilance team overpowered him. Neelmani said the three DSPs Prakash Nath Mishra, Shashi Bhushan Sharma and Parvez Akhtar along with a team of Gorkha forces had been stationed for the operation. The officer-in-charge is being interrogated.

Yadav, who was recently in news for a scuffle with Janata Dal (United) leader Prabhunath Singh in the lower house of the parliament, was wanted in connection with assaulting one Dinesh Saha in Bihar.

Yadav, who is also the brother-in-law of railway Minister Lalu Prasad, had assaulted Saha, who was contesting for the post of headman from Phulwaria - Prasad's native village. The case against Yadav has been registered under Sections 323, 341, 504, 188, 462, 171(F), 171(C) and 353 of the IPC.

Bihar Police had earlier faxed a copy of the charge sheet to Delhi Police.

'We had received a copy of the fax and had extended support to the Bihar team. However, there is no arrest so far,' said Anand Mohan, deputy commissioner of police (New Delhi).

Mohan said the team went to Yadav's official residence at 15-A, Janpath but did not find him there.

Indeed, the state police headquarters is divided in castes and groups and acts of IPS officials are often marked with indiscipline, insubordination and lack of professionalism.

Wars are fought on letters in the police headquarters. So much so that former ADG (CID) Baljit Singh, peeved at the fight between an IG and a DIG working under him, wrote, "Please do not make the files a battleground."

Take these: Former DGP K A Jacob had to face the embarrassment of seeing a noting made by a junior IPS official in a file which read, the DGP is economically 'offender-friendly'.

Another former DGP D P Ojha was flatly refused the details about the Secret Service Funds being spent by the CID. Controversial DIG A K Verma refused to obey former DGP Narayan Mishra's directive to remain on duty at the police control room. A DIG-rank official refused to obey his IG...

This is the first time in the history of Bihar that the state police will be trained like army soldiers the decision of which was taken by the Nitish government in the month of June.

This is just one of the few innovative steps the state police is taking to equip its police force to tackle criminals more effectively, Additional Director General of Police (ADG) Abhayanand said.

State cops will also be sent to police training centers in Manipur and Madhya Pradesh where they will be made acquainted with modern, state-of-the-art techniques in guerilla warfare, quick response actions, bomb diffusion, and other necessary police actions, Sinha said.