Medicine trader killed in Bihar’s Vaishali, road blocked in protest

Two unidentified motorcycle-borne criminals gunned down a medicine trader in Bihar’s Vaishali district on Friday night, police said.

Anil Thakur, 45, was about to leave for his home after closing his pharmaceutical shop when the criminals fired at him near Guru Chowk at Jandaha, 34 km east of district headquarters Hajipur, the police said.

Thakur was immediately taken to the nearby primary health centre, where the doctors declared him “brought dead”.

Protesting against the killing, hundreds of people on Saturday paralysed the movement of vehicles by placing the body of Thakur on the Hajipur-Jandaha road. Enraged villagers deflated the tyres of some vehicles and also raised slogans against the “failure” of Jandaha police in controlling incidents of crime.

Locals said Thakur, son of former up-pramukh of district’s Sahdei Bujurg block, Sandhya Devi, had received a ransom demand for Rs 50 lakh three months ago. “Earlier also Thakur had received such demands and he was provided two constables of State Auxiliary Police (SAP) for protection. The security was withdrawn last year,” they said.

Vaishali superintendent of police (SP) Rakesh Kumar said the security to the trader was withdrawn last year for deployment of the constables in panchayat election related work. He said the police were investigation the murder from all angles.

Meanwhile, the state police headquarters in Patna have sought a report on the incident from the Vaishali SP.