CPI(ML) has said that the complicity of BJP and JD(U) leaders with the criminals and anti-social elements in Bihar is on the rise. In a recent incident a very poor dalit Mundrika Manjhi, 42, was brutally murdered because he refused to brew illegal liquor for the feudal goons which included JD(U)’s Kowakol block president Upendra Yadav. On the one hand Nitish Kumar is never tired of patting his own back for the liquor ban legislation, but on the ground he is giving impunity to his party men do not hesitate even murdering someone for refusing to brew.
The deceased and Chhote Manjhi, who is injured in the same incident, both are members of All India Rural and Agricultural Labour Association (AIARLA) in Nawada district. A CPI(ML) team led by party district Secretary Narendra Singh investigated the whole incident in detail.
The politician-bureaucracy’s nexus with liquor mafia is strengthening ever since the liquor ban is in place in Bihar. The liquor ban has become one more tool for perpetrating atrocities on dalits and poor and extorting money from them. Few months ago Mastan Manjhi and Painter Manjhi in Jahanabad were convicted and jailed after an unusually brief court proceeding for “possessing Toddy”. They could not pay money to the police hence persecuted.
There has also been another incident of atrocity in Nawada on February 12 in which local BJP MLA Aruna Devi’s one relative Dharmendra Singh barged into the house of Chale Majhi and forcibly attempted to abduct and rape his daughter. When Chale Manjhi opposed this, first he was shot and then attacked with a spade. The criminals have not yet been arrested. The CPI(ML) has called for a protest on 21 February in Nawada against these crimes and governmental protection to criminals.
