Around 80,000 people killed and half that number kidnapped in the past 15 years, Bihar has seen no respite from spiralling crime. Instilling fear of law among criminals and a sense of security among the people are prerequisites for the state to think of progress — the least that the people expect under President’s Rule is that.‘‘The police and criminals are hand in glove. When politicians, who are supposed to be accountable to the public, joined the nexus, there was nobody to stop it. I don’t think anybody has been convicted in Bihar in the past decade,’’ says a retired judge of the Patna High Court. Former Bihar DGP D.P. Ojha, whose campaign against what he calls ‘‘politico-criminals’’ led to his removal from the post in 2003, says ‘‘all kidnappings and most murders in Bihar are linked to less than a dozen people’’. ‘‘These regional chieftains run gangs ranging from 15 to 200 people, who organise loot, murder and kidnapping and they do it all with the full protection of the police and the surety that no action will follow,’’ says Ojha.Investigations into the kidnapping of Kislay Kaushal, which had become a political embarrassment for the ruling party during the Assembly elections, ended with the killing of a man who the police claimed was the kingpin. But senior police officials say the criminal killed in the police encounter had nothing to do with the kidnapping. ‘‘The actual kidnapper must be having a hearty laugh,’’ says an officer. ‘‘There is no investigation after the encounter and everyone is happy.’’Police officials say it is now the turn of the criminals to help the policemen — if the government gets tough, the crime syndicates will be advised by their police-politician patrons to lie low for a while. ‘‘President’s Rule will not last forever. They will come back and start afresh. The challenge before the government is not merely to stop crime, but to investigate all crimes in the recent past and bring criminals to the law,’’ says Ojha.Besides, officials believe the state police cannot undergo an overhaul without the removal of most district police chiefs. ‘‘One SP can change the crime situation in a district overnight and the recent example in Siwan proves it,’’ says V.S. Dubey, former chief secretary of Bihar.
