Police station ransacked after smuggler’s death

A mob in Bihar’s Katihar district on Wednesday vandalised and ransacked the Barsoi police station after police allegedly gunned down an alleged liquor smuggler during an encounter late Tuesday night.

Police, however, said the liquor smuggler died in an exchange of gun fire with his rival in the business.

Eye witnesses said no sooner information of the alleged smuggler’s death spread in the area, hundreds of people gathered at Barsoi police station and started pelting stones. They also vandalized the police station and allegedly looted a police carbine. Police, however, managed to recover it soon.

The mob was protesting death of local youth, Munna Nuniya, 22, in alleged police firing. Resident of Beldar village under Kachna police station of Barsoi sub division area, Munna, police said, smuggled liquor from neighbouring state, West Bengal. Tuesday night he and his rival got into a quarrel near the Barsoi BD College that soon turned violent with both sides exchanging gun fire. Nuniya died in the firing.

Villagers, however, declared it a cold blooded murder by police and demanded stern actions against the errant police men besides adequate compensation to the next of kin of the deceased. Barsoi market saw a complete bandh in protest of the incident on Wednesday.

A police officer on the spot said, “When we heard firing of gunshots emanating from the BD College area, we reached there and found the liquor smugglers exchanging gun fire. Later, the gun shots went silent and we found a body lying on the streets. The culprit had managed to escape.”

Barsoi sub divisional police officer (SDPO) Pankaj Kumar said “We are looking into the matter. We detail further on the incident after situation returns to normalcy.”

Katihar superintendent of police (SP) S M Jain rushed to Barsoi and deployed additional forces to control rioters.

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