Urmila Devi, 70, mother of Station House Officer (SHO) Ashwini Kumar(52) of Kishanganj Police station, Bihar, died in shock after seeing the lifeless body of his son who was lynched to death by some motorcycle thieves in West Bengal few days ago. It is learnt that Urmila Devi was a cardiac patient.
Ashwini Kumar was lynched at Pantapara village in West Bengal’s Uttar Dinajpur district while he went there to conduct a raid on motorcycle thieves, who were active in Bihar. He was accompanied by eight policemen and two whistleblowers. Kumar was attacked at the house of the prime accused, Firoz Alam, where he had found a stolen motorcycle and started questioning the members of the house. The seven policemen who were at the location with Kumar fled away while he stayed to rescue the lives of the two informers with him.
The seven policemen have been suspended by the Kishanganj police station for dereliction of duty and running away from the scene of incident.
Both SHO Kumar and his mother Urmila Devi were cremated together in their ancestral village.
Kishanganj Superintendent of Police (SP) Ashish Kumar blamed the lack of assistance from West Bengal Police for Kumar's death. “As per CrPC provisions, a police team can conduct raids in the jurisdiction of another police station… Had they helped us, our officer would have been saved,”he was quoted as saying by a leading web portal.