Lawmaker’s husband on the run

Gangster escapes from custody after being arrested in murder investigation

The Nitish Kumar government, facing criticism by the opposition over the deteriorating law and order situation in Bihar, has come under further attack after the husband of a ruling party lawmaker fled from police custody yesterday.

The accused Awadhesh Mandal, a dreaded gangster who faces dozens of criminal cases, including murder, extortion, kidnapping, rape and battering his own lawmaker wife, had been arrested on Sunday evening for allegedly threatening witnesses in a murder case.

Police arrested Mandal, husband of ruling Janata Dal-United (JD-U) lawmaker Bima Bharti, in Bihar’s Purnia district on Sunday while he, along with his accomplices, was fleeing the scene after threatening witnesses in an 11-year-old murder case.

Police said the gangster, travelling in a cavalcade of four cars, reached the Purnia residence of a widow and threatened her with dire consequences if she and other witnesses deposed in the court statements against him.

The gangster is an accused in the May 2005 murder of Chanchal Paswan, the widow’s husband, and the trial of the case is ongoing in the local court.

His open threats, however, only agitated local residents who attacked the gangster and also stoned his cars, damaging them badly. Mandal fled for dear life but was caught midway by police and locked up at Maranga police station.

Soon after news of his arrest reached his wife, she reached the police station in the company of local parliamentarian Santosh Kushawa, also of the JD-U, and exerted pressure on police to release him, but they refused. Yesterday, however, he managed to escape from custody.

“We are conducting raids to nab absconding Mandal. He will be arrested soon,” local superintendent of police Nishant Kumar Tiwary said.