In a shocking incident, a judge in Bihar was mercilessly assaulted by a fellow passenger when the judicial officer was travelling in a train from Gaya to Patna.
Judge Prashant Kumar Jha, posted as Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (ACJM) at Pupri in Sitamarhi, was on the way to the state capital after some personal work in Gaya when the unsavoury incident took place.
A group of unauthorised passengers had a heated exchange of words with the judicial officer over a seat in the train.
When Jha resisted their bid to occupy the seat, the passengers roughed him up mercilessly.
As if this was not enough, the passengers made a call to fellow villagers when the train stopped at the next station. Some more hoodlums joined in to assault the ACJM. No bodyguard was travelling with the ACJM during the incident.
Some fellow passengers intervened to save the judge but by then, blood had started oozing out of his nose, besides swelling on the face.
Jha got down from the train at Jehanabad railway station and lodged a complaint with the Government Railway Police. A fellow passenger made a video of the entire fracas and handed it over to the ACJM.
"We have identified two persons, Shashank Shekhar and Suraj Kumar, both residents of Makhdumpur in Jehanabad, and arrested them. The duo have been booked under sections 147, 148, 149, 341, 323, 307, 379, and 504 of the Indian Penal Code," said the Superintendent of Railway Police (SRP) Ashok Kumar Singh.
Both the accused were produced in a local court, which remanded the duo to 14 days of judicial custody.
Meanwhile, the Bihar Judicial Service Association (BJSA) has taken a strong exception to the assault incident and wondered why no bodyguard was travelling with the ACJM.
"I had submitted a representation to the Bihar DGP, as well as the home secretary, to provide armed bodyguards to all judges in the state, irrespective of their rank. However, no action has been taken in this regard, which clearly shows government's apathy," said Ajit Kumar Singh, secretary of the BJSA.
