A controversial MLC from Bihar’s ruling BJP on Tuesday allegedly shot dead one of his employees with the carbine of his bodyguard following a tiff, sparking massive public protests and prompting the Opposition parties to say the state was under a “jungle raj”.
Dhiraj Mahto, who had been working with MLC at a petrol pump in the eastern town of Katihar, died on the spot after being shot at. While Mahto’s grief-stricken brother Neeraj Kumar claimed to have seen the MLC shooting at Mahto, both MLC and his bodyguard denied the charge, saying it was accidental firing during the process of cleaning the weapon.
The police allegedly refused to lodge an FIR when Neeraj Kumar approached them, but an FIR was lodged against the MLC after hundreds of people protested on
the streets and tried to set the local MLC’s car on fire.
“The MLC had an argument with my brother and got angry. I saw him snatching the carbine from his bodyguard and shooting at him (my brother), pumping between five and ten bullets into him,” said Kumar to journalists.
The MLC, he alleged, wanted to send Dhiraj to his factory in Araria against his wish and the two had been arguing over the matter.
“The DSP, when I told him of my brother’s murder and begged for lodging an FIR against Agrawal, refused to do so,” he added.
Denying the accusation, the MLC said: “The shots were accidentally fired when my bodyguard was cleaning his carbine. Dhiraj Mahto, with whom I had very cordial relations, was present there and unfortunately got injured”.
The bodyguard, Shashikant, who was later taken into custody, gave the same explanation, but could not say why he was cleaning a loaded carbine.