Judicial probe ordered into Bagaha police firing

Bihar government today set up a judicial commission headed by a retired judge of Patna High Court to probe Bagaha police firing incident which claimed the lives of six Tharu tribals.
The commission would be headed by retired judge Rajendra Prasad, Principal Secretary (Cabinet Coordination and Secretariat) Brajesh Mehrotra told reporters here.
The decision to order the judicial probe was taken at a cabinet meeting presided over by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and the name of the retired judge to head the judicial commission was finalised on the basis of recommendation by the Patna high court registrar, he said.
The commission would probe the background of the incident at Katharwa village, sequence of events on the day of the firing on June 24 and direct and indirect situations, he said.

The judicial commission would submit its report within six months.
Mehrotra said the cabinet had also approved Rs five lakh compensation to the next of kin of the six killed in the police firing and sanctioned the same compensation to a person named Ganesh Kumar, who suffered severe and paralytic injuries on his back in the same incident.

Besides, compensation of Rs 50,000 would be given to each of the 21 seriously injured villagers and Rs 25,000 to those people who sustained minor injuries.
The cabinet sanctioned Rs five lakh compensation to the kin of a person named Munna Singh, who died last night at Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) due to torture in police custody in his native Jamui district, he said.

In order to deal with Maoist activities and organised crime in Bihar, the government sanctioned the creation of additional 25 units of the Special Task Force (STF) at a cost of Rs 49.45 crore, he added.