Bihar's senior police officer apologises for blaming crime on farmers

Patna: Bihar's Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) Kundan Krishnan, who recently stoked a controversy by linking the recent rise in violent crimes in the state to crop seasons, on Saturday apologised for his comments.

In a brief video message, the ADG (Law and Order) said he had "great respect for those involved in farming" and blamed the controversy on "distorted" representation of his remarks.

Beginning his less than two minutes long message with "greetings to farmer brethren", the 1994-batch IPS officer said "a portion of my statement at a recent press conference was reported in a distorted manner. I had never intended to say that farmers, the providers of our food (annadata) had anything to do with crime".

"I have great respect for farmers, my ancestors have all been in the farming business. I maintain strong links with my roots, of which the farming community is a part. Still, if my statement has hurt any sentiments, I tender an apology," said Krishnan.

He had, earlier this week, said that "between April and June", there has always been a spurt in crime in Bihar, which has only "two crop seasons" and leaves farm hands without jobs during the period.

He had also said many such jobless farm hands used to take up "supari" (contract) killings for easy money and sought to buttress the point by citing figures from the previous years.

Nonetheless, the opposition in the state took strong exception to the statement, alleging that the Nitish Kumar government was trying to come up with excuses for its failure to keep crime in check.