CM Flooded with Complaints of Police Inaction, Corruption
Patna: Sept. 10, 2007
It was a day the state police would rather forget sooner than later following a series of complaints made before Chief Minister Nitish Kumar by hundreds of people at Janata Darbar, each accusing the state police of committing atrocities and looking the other way while criminals and criminals-turned-politicians destroyed the lives of innocent citizens.
Over 1500 distraught men and women, at the Janata Darbar on Monday, said the police, instead of protecting the victims of crimes, were harassing them and protecting the perpetrators who have virtually been given a free hand to unleash a reign of terror in the state.
Many who came to the Janata Darbar on Monday also accused the police of tampering with key evidences in attempts to protect the criminals while a woman from Saharsa accused the DSP and the police station in-charge of attempting to rape her when she went there to lodge a complaint against a local goon.
The Chief Minister handed over each case to top Bihar officials instructing them to ensure the bad cops were either dismissed or brought to justice without undue delay.
Home Secretary Afzal Amanullah, Director General of Police (DGP) Ashish Ranjan Sinha, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Kundan Krishnan, IG (Headquarters) Anil Sinha and a number of other state officials were present during the long complaint session.
Later, while talking to the reporters, the Chief Minister admitted the Bihar police, while certainly showing some sign of improvement, had a long way to go in winning the support of the people of Bihar.
"The fact that so many people are eager to see me at the Janata Darbar, it is evident that they are not getting justice at the lower level and this is not good for the community," he said.
"There is a lot of room for improvement in the police department. Police officers are not yet pro-people and are far from being professionals. Though things are changing slowly, we must speed up the process to win the support and respect of our people," Kumar said.
The Chief Minister also met with the parents of 11-year old Akaash who was kidnapped from Shastri Nagar on August 10 while on his way to school.
Conceding the police had not much to follow up, Kumar assured the aggrieved family of all cooperation and instructed the officials to intensify their investigation in the case.

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