Extortionists operate from within Beur Central Jail

Randhir Jaiswal, an electronic goods dealer of Danapur, received a handwritten letter at his shop last month. The carrier of the letter asked Jaiswal to call up another mobile number belonging to a notorious criminal lodged in the Beur Central Jail. When he did, the man in prison asked him to pay Rs 2 lakh fast. Jaiswal failed to oblige him. He was killed.

A medicine stockist of Govind Mitra Road, Radhe Shyam Agarwal, was gunned down by a few gun-toting youths at the behest of one Satyajeet alias Neta, who is currently lodged in the Beur Central Jail. Satyajeet was in dire need of money to secure his bail.

A departmental storekeeper Raj Narain Sah was attacked and subsequently killed for his failure to pay extortion money to a hardened criminal, Shyam Babu Gope, who is also lodged in the Beur Central Jail.

Though all the above three incidents took place at different places and on different dates, there is one similarity. The conspiracy to eliminate the three businessmen of the State Capital was hatched at the Beur Central Jail, which, of late, has acquired the dubious distinction of being the ‘crime headquarters of Bihar.’

Be it extortion, loot or murder- every major incident of crime has its connection with the ganglords lodged in the Beur jail. It is not that the police officials are unaware of the happenings. But what has stopped them from taking action against the gangsters, who are still operating from behind the bars, is not known.

Patna Senior Superintendent of Police Vineet Vinayak on Friday admitted that the plot to kill Agarwal, a medicine trader of Govind Mitra Road, was hatched by a Beur jail inmate, Satyajeet alias Neta.

During interrogation, one of the five persons arrested in connection with the murder, Shankar Dom alias Shankar Mallik, disclosed that he killed Agarwal at the behest of the leader of the gang, Satyajeet. “As he (Satyajeet) needed money to get bail, he asked me to get money from any businessman and then kill him to destroy evidences,” he told his interrogators.

Agarwal’s murder under the Pirbahore police station on Monday night stirred up the members of the Bihar Drug and Chemists Association, who called an emergency meeting with the senior police officials at the Bihar Chamber and Commerce premises on Friday.

They vent ire against the police administration for its failure to contain crime. The police, on the other hand, claimed to have unraveled the mystery behind the murder of Agarwal within a week. “Not only the criminals involved in the murder of Agarwal were arrested, but the police seized the firearm, which was used in the crime,” the SSP said.

Two murders at short intervals (Agarwal and Jaiswal) forced the Patna police to carry out surprise inspection at the Beur Jail. The raid conducted in the wee hours led to the seizure of the SIM card, which was used to demand extortion money from Jaiswal.

The raid on Thursday led to the seizure of 28 mobile phones, 30 chargers and Rs 19000 in cash from the ward in which Satyajeet is lodged. “Had we carried out search operation in all the wards, not less than 500 mobiles could have been seized from there,” said a member of the raiding team.

The police officials also came to know about the nexus between the notorious criminals and the prison staff. “We have mentioned the name of some jail employees whose role is under the scanner, in the station diary lodged at the Beur police station,” a senior police officer said.

He said, “We have also decided to report the officials of the Home Department about the nexus between criminals and jail staff. If the use of mobile phones is not restricted, it will be very difficult for the police to check crime in Patna.”

Sources in the intelligence agencies said that the conspiracy of the murder of some businessmen of Bihar and Jharkhand was hatched at the Beur Jail. To buttress his point, an official of the state intelligence agency said that a Bokaro police team visited the Beur Central Jail recently to interrogate Bindu Singh, who is believed to have masterminded a trader’s killing from behind the bars.

Not only that. A Motihari police team conducted a raid at the house of criminal turned politician Rajan Tiwari last month on specific information, that some hardcore criminals of Bihar and UP had assembled there to commit crime in the area. One AK-47 rifle, a carbine and a large number of ammunition were recovered from the house. Tiwari is also lodged in the Beur Jail.

“Unless and until, the jail staff is made accountable for seizure of mobile phones and other objectionable articles from the prisoners and booked for abetment, all attempts to contain crime in the state will prove futile,” remarked a retired DSP.

For now, such abettors have been let off with official warnings and non-consequential suspensions for a short period.