A 45-year-old shopkeeper was shot dead and his younger brother injured with gunshot wounds for allegedly refusing to give a cigarette to three persons on Sunday night at Fatuha, near Bihar’s capital Patna. Police have arrested one person and seized the motorcycle used to commit the crime while claiming that two other absconding persons would be caught “very soon”.
Meanwhile, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader and Leader of the Opposition in Assembly Tejashwi Yadav took on the ruling “double-engine NDA government” in Bihar over the deteriorating law and order situation while mentioning 53 recent incidents of crime in the State.
The incident occurred late on the night of July 28 when the victim Raman Ravidas had closed the shutters of his shop, which is located just near his home at Maqsoodpur village under Fatuha police station limits and retired for the day when three men riding on a motorbike came and knocked at his house door for a cigarette. When Ravidas opened the door but refused to open his shop to give cigarette to them, one whipped out a pistol and fired at the chest of Mr. Ravidas, who died on the spot.
Hearing the sounds of gunshot, his younger brother Rudal Ravidas, 40, ran rushing to the spot and the killers fired at him as well. He was injured with gunshot wounds in his hand. After the firing incident, the three accused escaped while leaving their motorbike at the spot in Fatuha, which is some 25 km east of Patna.
“The local villagers informed the police and took the injured Mr. Rudal to the nearest Community Health Centre from where he was later referred to the Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) for better medical attention. The incident sent shockwaves among the villagers and the locality. Both Raman and Rudal Ravidas were married.
“My father was shot dead just for a cigarette for which he refused to open the shop around 10.30 pm on Sunday. Even my uncle was shot at but he is stable at PMCH”, Kamlesh Ravidas, son of deceased Raman Ravidas, told The Hindu adding, “We want all the three persons be arrested as soon as possible and be awarded severest punishment under the law. We also want compensation for our father’s loss”.
The mother of the deceased Rudal Ravidas, Lalmuni Devi said, “One of my sons was killed while another is battling for life in the hospital as they refused to open their shop late at night merely for a cigarette. How we’ll manage our home now? We only want justice…nyay hona chahiye”, she said while wailing for the sudden “irreparable” loss in the family.
Upon being informed by villagers’, top district police officials reached the spot on Sunday night and started investigation. “Yes, their FIR says that Raman Ravidas was killed for refusing to give cigarette to three unknown persons late on Sunday night. We’ve arrested one of the three accused persons and their bike too has been seized. We’ll arrest the two absconding persons very soon as manhunt has been launched to nab them,” Fatuha Police Inspector Rupak Kumar Ambuj told The Hindu.
Meanwhile, RJD leader and former Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav took on the ruling NDA government over the deteriorating law and order situation in the State. “This is the double-engine NDA government’s mahachaupat raj (regime of great disaster). There is mahajungle raj (great anarchy) in the State and this has been the definition for the NDA regime”, Tejashwi Yadav said in his post on social media on Monday while listing as many as 53 incidents of crimes occurred in the state in recent times.
