Equal Opportunity?

A few weeks back, a case of police brutality was reported in Bihar. It almost became a national issue. As usual, this was followed by TV specials, angry responses from human rights commissions, fiery articles and editorials etc.

Now a new case has come to light.

NAWADA: Incidents of people taking law into their hand continued in Bihar with another suspected thief being lynched at Badahori in Nawada district.

A group of people caught hold of Amrik Rajbanshi and beat him to death after he and four others were suspected to have committed theft at a house, police said.

A case was registered against unknown persons. The incident came close on the heels of lynching of two kidnappers by angry residents at Mahnagani in West Champaran district on Sunday.

Earlier, two persons were beaten to death in Patna on suspicion of being robbers on September 21 and ten suspected thieves lynched in Vaishali district two days later.

A mob gouged out the eyes of three young men who had snatched away a motorcycle in Nawada district on September nine.

The wave of mob violence in the state started when a youth, who had allegedly snatched a woman's gold chain, was severely beaten up by a crowd and later tied to a motorcycle and dragged on the road by police in Bhagalpur district on August 28.

The last para in the report refers to the police brutality case mentioned in the beginning of the post. Come to think of it, had the police not got involved in that one and the public saw their justice through till the end (the way they see it fit in those parts), the man wouldn't have been alive.

In any case, no further details or analyses are available, newspapers are busy with the looming mid-term polls.