In this latest case––if the stories now coming from Purnea are to be believed––the powers that be crossed the limit and was ‘unfortunate’ enough to go down stabbed by the victim herself. The rest are ‘fortunate’ enough to come out of the situation of their own making.

However, in one case at least the accused got punished, and that is of Champa Biswas, the wife of, now late, IAS officer B B Biswas. Incidentally the accused, Mitrunjay, a Delhi University graduate, then still in 20s, and son of Hemlata Yadav, former MLA and the then Chairperson of the state Social Welfare Board, got released just a few months ago after serving his jail term in that case. Hemlata too was sentenced to jail but for lesser period. Both Biswas family and Hemlata were neighbours in the Bailey Road apartments.

Raj Kishore Kesri’s case appears to be handled poorly by those in powers. Unlike in the earlier cases in which those wielding power silently used their influence to get acquitted, in this case the state’s deputy chief minister, Sushil Kumar Modi, opened up his mouth first last year May and dubbed the woman as blackmailer. He repeated the same allegation now when Rupam killed the MLA and is prepared to be hanged.

Instead of keeping his tongue tied and ‘influence’ the investigation Modi used his lung power, which further compounded his own party’s miseries. Perhaps he had not learnt anything from politicians of the past.
For example, the Bobby case of 1980s involved the son of a former Speaker of Bihar. So when the then Superintendent of Police, Kishore Kunal, tried to have a hand on the culprits he was transferred. The then chief minister and now Janata Dal (United) leader Dr Jagannath Mishra came under heavy criticism from all quarters for shielding the perpetrators. Bobby was a telephone operator in Secretariat and was killed in a mysterious circumstance. The SP’s transfer order came only after he got exhumed her body.
In late 1990s the bodies of Shilpi Jain and Gautam, an RJD worker, were found in a garage in a car locked from inside near Gandhi Maidan, just a stone throw distance away from the residence of the SSP. The names of Sadhu Yadav, now a Congress leader and brother of the then chief minister Rabri Devi and a minister in her cabinet were dragged into the controversy. Though after much hue and cry the state government agreed for a CBI inquiry yet the investigative agency, which managed to send his powerful brother-in-law, Lalu Yadav, to jail five times, failed to nail him. The CBI gave clean chit to Sadhu and concluded that both Shilpi and Gautam committed suicide.

Champa Biswas was the wife of IAS officer B B Biswas. She accused young Mitrunjay of sexually harassment. The name of powerful and not-so-powerful were also dragged into the case. However, young Mitrunjay failed to bail himself out and got a jail term. None could touch others.
After the bifurcation of Bihar Biswas got Jharkhand cadre. A few years later he died though was still in service.

Similarly the body of a young woman was recovered from the vicinity of Bailey Road some three years back. The media initially identified it of Reshma Khatoon, the woman who reportedly wrote letters to all those who matter in the state, about her safety before her death. Several journalists and photographers were brutally assaulted by the supporters of Janata Dal (United) MLA from Mokama, Anant Singh, as they dragged his name into this whole episode. However, the matter ended later on and it was ‘reported’ that the body was of a different woman, perhaps named Kajol.

A unique incident occurred in mid-1990s when the then Janata Dal MLA Yogendra Narayan Sardar was castrated by a Dalit girl, whom he tried to rape in her own constituency in Supaul district. The victim was not literate and informed enough to know that a similar case occurred only some times back in Philippines, where an alleged rapist named Bobbit was castrated by a woman. Thus the ‘bobbitted’ MLA never showed his face and did not get ticket in the subsequent Assembly election. On the other hand the then Lalu Yadav government rewarded the victim girl for extraordinary courage and bravery.

While Bobby, Champa Biswas and Shilpi Jain-Gautam cases are still recalled, the alleged murder of Reshma and the bravery of the Dalit girl gradually sank into oblivion.

Essayist Francis Bacon wrote that ‘Revenge is wild justice’. But at least the word justice figured in it. Perhaps Rupam and the Dalit girl are aware of what he wrote.

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