RANCHI, JULY 22: Come elections and the crime graph inevitably zooms in Bihar. The scene appears no different this time.On July 13, two days after Election Commissioner M S Gill announced the schedule for the Lok Sabha polls, which is to be held in this state in three phases - on September 17, 24 and October 1 - Akhil Jharkhand Mukti Morcha secretary Ritlal Verma was shot dead in Jamshedpur.Earlier on July 10, four-year-old Abkit Jhunjhunwalla, a nursery school student, was abducted from the corridors of his school in Bhagalpur. On July 13, in separate incidents, four youths were kidnapped - Apurva Burdman (32) in Kodarma, Veerendra Prasad (38) in Bihar Sharif, Prem Chand Gupta (42) in Nalanda and Sant Kumar Gupta (38) in Danapur in Patna. Then, Mritunjay (26) was abducted from Bhagalpur on Monday.Kidnapping, which has acquired the proportions of an industry in the state since the early 1970s, takes place for ransom. The ransom money during the polls reportedly goes towards fulfilling the needs ofpoliticians interested in entering the electoral arena.It is not known whether any of the recent kidnapping cases has anything to do with the elections. Mahto, a politician turned-contractor, is widely suspected to have been killed by hired goons of rival politician. All the abduction victims are extremely rich and all of them remain untraced till date.Last year, when the mid-term polls were conducted in three phases in the state from December 1 to March 26, the number of murders and kidnapping cases stood at 123 and 210 respectively.While the police have drawn a blank in almost all these cases, including the present ones, the state administration seems to be little concerned about it. This is evident from the fact that for the past one week, when Bhagalpur, Patna, Samastipur and Jamshedpur had witnessed a series of dharnas, processions and bandhs demanding the arrest of the culprits responsible for the murder of Mahto and abduction of Jhunjhunwalla, Bardman, Prasad, Guptas and Mirtunjay. ChiefMinister Rabri Devi, Chief Secretary S N Biswas and Director General of Police K A Jacob preferred to maintain a studied silence. While none of them were available for comment, sources close to them said that they had not even held a joint meeting to review the law and order problem.This has left the family members of the victims to fend for themselves. Portraying the rage and helplessness of a cross-section of the affected lot, a video film on a dharna staged by the Bihar Chamber of Commerce and Industries activists in the state capital recently shows a woman holding a poster with the words kya ho jahan rakshak hi bhakshak ho (what else can happen when the protectors of the law are themselves the violators).
