Nawada incident: State government takes action against SHO for failure in intelligence gathering

Dalit homes set on fire in Bihar, police take action against SHO for intelligence failure, arrests made, investigation ongoing.

Two days after 34 houses, mostly belonging to Dalits, were set on fire in Bihar’s Nawada district, the Nawada Superintendent of Police Abhinav Dhiman on Friday (September 20, 2024) took action against the SHO of the local police station for his alleged failure in ‘intelligence gathering’.

A Dalit hamlet was attacked on Wednesday (September 18) night, and at least 34 houses were set on fire by alleged land mafia at Krishna Nagar village under Mufassil Police station in Bihar’s Nawada district. So far 15 people have been arrested by the police, including the main accused, Nandu Paswan.

While briefing the press at his office in Nawada, Mr. Dhiman said, “We did the post analysis of the entire incident and found that there was a failure in intelligence gathering at the local level. The serving SHO had visited the place 15 days ago. The 2018 batch officer has been removed and placed on ‘Line Hajir’ after he failed in intelligence gathering. He has been issued show cause notice and we have sought a reply in seven days. If we find that his explanation is not satisfactory then further action would be taken. It is not only at the police station level, if we find any failure at any level, action would be taken against concerned officials.”

Mr. Dhiman also said that the situation is under control and SIT has been formed to catch the rest of the accused.

According to the police, the torching of the house is the outcome of the land dispute in which police has arrested 15 people including the main accused who is a retired police jawan. Three countrymade pistols, three misfired rounds, two empty cartridges, six motorbikes have been recovered as part of the investigation from the place of occurrence.

Police have already lodged the FIR and imposed several sections under Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) 2023. Case has also been registered under Arms Act and several sections of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.

State government has also distributed the compensation of ₹1 lakh each to all 34 families whose houses have been burnt.