Madhubani continues to burn on second day

 Madhubani continued to burn for the second consecutive day on Saturday as agitators torched a police station, a BDO office and ransacked the Jaynagar railway station.

Two persons were killed while 12 others were grievously injured in the last 30 hours when locals entered into a pitched battle with the police over the latter’s refusal to hand over the body of Prashant, a student.

17-year-old Prashant, a class X student, went missing along with a local girl, who was one year junior to him. The police claimed that both had eloped, but on October 2, a headless body was found which Prashant’s kin claimed was his. The police, which carried out post-mortem twice, claimed that it was the body of a 27-year-old man, and not Prashant’s. The girl, meanwhile, remaines untraced.

As a consequence, an enraged locals fought a pitched battle with the cops and set a police station on fire. Later, the protesters set nine vehicles on fire. The police had to resort to firing to quell the mob. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Friday night transferred the Madhubani DM Adesh Titirmare and the SP, Saurav Kumar, and ordered a judicial probe into the firing incident.

But the transfers did not have any impact. On Saturday, the locals resorted to more violence and set Basopatti police station on fire. They also burnt a government office at Khajauli and ransacked Jaynagar railway station.

According to latest reports, the police on Saturday evening eventually handed over the body of Prashant to his family, a move which is likely to help restore normalcy in the trouble-torn district.

 In another incident, lathi-wielding goons of liquor mafia attacked former minister Hind Keshri Yadav on the collectorate premises at Muzaffarpur on Saturday.

Yadav, who served as a minister in Lalu Prasad and Rabri Devi’s Cabinet, was on way to the district magistrate’s office to submit a memorandum against illicit liquor traders.

The septuagenarian leader-cum-social activist was beaten up black and blue in full public view by the goons with lathis until he fell to the ground. He was rushed to the nearby hospital where his condition is said to be out of danger. Meanwhile, Muzaffarpur DM Santosh Kumar Mall  promised strict action against all the accused.