Nitish Kumar faces 'jungle raj' charge as crime graph soars: Bihar ground report

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his party, the JD(U), hardly let go by an opportunity to take the “jungle raj” jibe at the now-friend-now-foe Yadavs of the RJD.

True, Bihar had a shameful crime graph when the RJD ruled for 15 long years, from 1990 to 2005. But now, Nitish, who stormed to power in the state in 2005 on the promise of eliminating crime, seems to have lost his grip over law and order as well, even his ardent admirers admit.

Residents in capital Patna and other places in the state acknowledge that incidents of crime are steadily rising in the state once again, with police officers vowing to shoot at sight if they confront armed criminals.

Palpable increase

In fact, data shows that things were not this bad even during the infamous “jungle raj” — about which Leader of Opposition in the Bihar Assembly and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav has been crying himself hoarse for quite a while.

The crime appears to be all-pervasive. On Wednesday (April 9), Union Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi's granddaughter Sushma Devi (32) was shot dead at Tetua village, in Bihar's Gaya district. Her husband Ramesh Singh, the main suspect, is absconding.

Last month, a dispute over tap water between two nephews of Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai, at Parbatta village of Bihar's Bhagalpur district, turned violent. One of them, Vishwajeet Yadav, died on the spot while his brother Jayjeet Yadav was critically injured.

What NCRB data says

According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report, the state in 2022 recorded 3,47,835 crimes, which, incidentally, was thrice as many as that recorded in 2005 — 1,07,66.

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The report reveals that 953 crimes took place in Bihar every day in 2022, including eight murders, 33 kidnappings, 136 heinous crimes, 55 crimes against women, at least two rapes, 28 kidnappings of women, and over a dozen kidnappings of children.

According to the NCRB report, Bihar ranked second after neighbouring Uttar Pradesh for most murder cases in 2022. Citing the report, Tejashwi said last month that nearly 60,000 murders and 25,000 rapes had been recorded in the state over the past 20 years — of which 18 have been under Nitish’s rule.

Tejashwi's 'crime bulletins'

Tejashwi has taken to posting regular 'crime bulletins' — these are lists of crimes that happened in the state in recent days. His April 8 'bulletin' listed over 100 incidents including shootings, killings and attempts to murder.

The RJD leader claims the NDA government is engaging in 'double talk on crime' by referring to his father Lalu Prasad's rule as 'jungle raj' while turning a blind eye to the current crime scene in the state.

The local media, under pressure from the government, doesn't give front page space to serious crime incidents, he says as justification for his 'bulletins'.

Businessmen targeted

The Federal spoke to residents about the soaring crime rate.

“Crimes are increasing by the day. It seems criminals are free to target anyone at their will without any fear,” Ravinder Kumar Singh, a private school teacher in the Kankarbagh area of Patna, told The Federal.

Jyoti Kumar, a wholesale grain trader, claimed criminals are now openly targeting the business community once again. “Tell me, why would an investor set up an industry or start a big business in Bihar?” he reasoned.

Indeed, businessmen, contractors, and property developers are once again becoming easy targets of criminals in Bihar, as this is the only class of wealthy people in the state. They were soft target of criminals earlier, too.

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In March, armed criminals looted jewellery worth Rs 25 crore from a Tanishq showroom in Ara town, the district headquarters of Bhojpur, 60 km from Patna. Earlier this month, criminals broke into the house of a rich trader in Patna and looted cash and jewellery worth over Rs 1 crore at gunpoint.

Nitish losing grip

Jyoti Kumar is among the many who feel that Nitish, in his second term as Bihar chief minister (2005-14), had a much stronger hold on the law-and-order situation in the state than at present. Nitish’s current term — his ninth — is being dubbed as the worst on the law-and-order front.

The keen-eyed Md Reyazuddin, who runs a small business in Patna, also recalled that Nitish failed to keep the crime rate down in his later terms even though he started well.

However, despite their observations and NCRB data, a cross-section of residents The Federal spoke to said they did not feel unsafe under Nitish rule. They claimed that the situation had not deteriorated beyond a point, and snatchings and extortions were not rampant.

Come evening, people step out of their homes in large numbers, without any ostensible fear, they said, even though local Hindi dailies report escalating crime in Bihar, including murders, rapes, loots, robberies, and kidnappings, on a daily basis.

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Why have crimes risen?

Incidentally, active police personnel, as well as those who retired from the force, admit that crimes have indeed risen in Bihar. And the rise of the powerful liquor mafia and sand mafia, who form a strong nexus with other criminals, local politicians, and administrative officials, is also contributing to the rising crime graph, they say.

In the dry state of Bihar, which has no industry or mineral resources, liquor and sand are the two most lucrative illicit trades. According to a former IPS officer, a chunk of the police force is busy enforcing the total liquor ban in the state, while there is no one to check serious crimes like murder, kidnapping, extortion, rape, loot, robbery, and theft.

“There is no fear of police among criminals,” the former IPS officer put it bluntly, pointing out the increasing attacks on police teams and the killings of two officers of ASI rank.

Encounter deaths

These two officers were killed, purportedly by the liquor mafia, in early March, in Araria and Munger. And that is what finally prompted the police to go on the offensive even as murders, rapes, loots and lynchings continued unabated.

The police headquarters in Patna has now given a free hand to its personnel to deal with criminals, allegedly following Nitish Kumar’s instructions to the top brass. On March 22, Bihar Police’s Special Task Force (STF), in an encounter, shot dead Chunmun Jha, the main accused in the Rs 25-crore jewellery heist in Ara town.

Jha was the fifth criminal to be shot dead by police this year in Bihar. Also, in March, a dreaded criminal, Bharat Singh, carrying a bounty of Rs 2 lakh, was arrested. Another criminal taken into custody was involved in the murder of an NRI.

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Bullet for bullet

Bihar’s Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) Kundan Krishnan has stated that the police have the right to shoot in self-defence if criminals flaunt weapons. “Those challenging the police will face bullets,” he said.

The Bihar Police headquarters has directed all superintendents of police to plan operations and increase crackdowns on criminals on a daily basis to create a fear of law among them. As a result, 227 criminals were arrested in the past three months.

Police have also drawn up a list of the top 20 dreaded criminals of the state to initiate action against them. Besides, they have compiled a database of criminals at the district and police station levels and are apparently working on a “new strategy” to control crimes.

‘Encounters not the solution’

However, despite the strict warnings and measures, criminal activities continue unabated. In Bhagalpur, a criminal shot dead a 22-year-old ice-cream vendor in the mouth recently for not giving him a free ice-cream.

Not everybody, however, believes in the trigger-happy policy. Abhyanand, a former director general of police in Bihar, who advocated speedy trial of criminal cases, told The Federal that he was completely against “encounter killings” to improve law and order.

“Crime data is not the only indicator of law and order. If 80 per cent of common people say they are safe and not living in fear, it is an indicator of good law and order. If the same number of people says they are not safe, it is an example of bad governance and poor law and order,” he said.

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Opposition targets Nitish

While the Opposition has been aggressively attacking Nitish and his government, both inside and outside the Assembly, for failing to control crime, members of the ruling coalition have called for the replication of the tough measures implemented by the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh to curb crimes in Bihar.

Yet, the JD(U) and many in the administration claim that things were much worse during Lalu-Rabri’s “jungle raj” from 1990 to 2005, when organised crime, kidnapping for ransom, extortion and caste massacres were widespread. JD(U) chief spokesperson Neeraj Kumar claimed that unlike then, kidnapping is no more an “industry” in Bihar and the Nitish government has put an end to organised crimes.

When Nitish became the chief minister in November 2005, he pledged to make the state crime-free within three months. Though he admitted soon after that it was an impossible task, even today, his success in controlling crimes in that term (2005-10) is lauded by many.

A senior police officer said that due to fast-track courts and speedy trials, 52,343 people were convicted in Bihar between January 2006 and August 2010. However, the trials slowed down and the conviction rate dropped in the state later.