Police add insult to firing victims’ injury

What he does know is that everytime he closes his eyes, the incidents of that night replay in his mind. ‘‘We were driving from Muzzafarpur to Majhaul when we crossed the police station. I heard somebody shouting followed by a gun shot. One policemen yelled: ‘Yehi sab hain. Fire karo (There are the guys. Open fire).’ And then they opened fire. I turned around and saw that both Rajesh Ranjan and Rajni had been hit all over and were bleeding profusely. The third person who was sitting in front had slipped down and was unhurt,’’ said Firoz, adding that it took him a while before he realised that he had also been hit.

‘‘I looked down and saw that I was bleeding too. That was when I realised that I had been hit. But I continued driving,’’ he said. Firoz drove straight to the house of the deceased in Majhaul village and there he collapsed.

The eldest brother of the duo, Nalni Ranjan Singh, said: ‘‘I came out and saw the blood. My brothers were already dead. I called the DSP and told him what

had happened. He said he would have to walk to our house because criminals were targetting police officers. But he never came. Then we took them to the nearest hospital.’’

‘‘My brother’s hand was almost severed.’’ He said their mother has not stopped crying ever since. ‘‘One mistake has cost her the lives of two of her sons. She is in no condition to talk to anybody now.’’

Firoz was driving the two brothers and their friend from Muzzafarpur district in North Bihar to their village in Begusarai on December 23 when a police patrol party led by Sub-divisional police officer Maheshwar Mahto opened fire on them.

The police party — that was on the look out for criminal Dilip Singh and his men — assumed that these men were all part of the criminal gang and shot them.

The same party had already had an encounter with the criminal and his gang. SP Rajesh Chandra has said that they are looking into the compensation aspect and that they would nab the accused.