Why a Bihar copâs lynching figured in Modiâs Bengal campaign speech
SHO Ashwini Kumar was killed in neighbouring Bengal during a raid to catch a theft suspect.
On April 12, newspapers published from Patna carried a
photograph of a pair of funeral pyres. Urmila Devi, 70, had died of a heart attack after hearing about her sonâs mob lynching. Her son, Ashwini Kumar, station house officer of Kishanganj town in Bihar, was lynched by a mob at Pantapara village in Bengalâs North Dinajpur, where he was leading a police team in pursuit of a man suspected of motorbike theft. They were cremated together at their Panchu Mandal Tola village in Purnea.
by Jaideep Mazumdar - Apr 12, 2021 01:08 PM
Kishanganj Police Station SHO Ashwini Kumar.
Snapshot
The Goalpokhar (West Bengal) police initially resisted the registration of a murder case and wanted to register a case of unnatural death. An unnatural death case would have allowed the perpetrators of the crime to go scot free.
It was only after senior Bihar Police officers intervened that the Bengal Police agreed to register a murder case and carry out raids at Pantapara to nab the accused.
At a time when media and political attention remained focused on the deaths of four young men in firing by Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel at Sitalkuchi in north Bengalâs Cooch Behar district, the lynching of a police officer from Bihar in the Muslim-majority Uttar Dinajpur district of Bengal in the wee hours of Saturday (10 April) received scant attention.
Image used for representational purpose only
PATNA: Barely 24 hours after the lynching of Kishanganj Town police station SHO Ashwini Kumar in a bordering West Bengal village, his septuagenarian mother Urmila Devi could not bear the shock and died on Sunday. The Kishanganj police team had raided the village to arrest the accused of a bike loot case.
Both Kumar and his mother were cremated together on the outskirts of their village Panchu Mandal Tola under Jankinagar police station area of Banmankhi in Purnia district. Kumar’s mother was suffering from several age-related ailments. His father had died around seven years ago, Kumar’s maternal uncle Subhash Singh told TOI over phone.
India News: Barely 24 hours after the lynching of Kishanganj Town police station SHO Ashwini Kumar in a West Bengal village, his septuagenarian mother Urmila Devi