“Additional Police Commissioner Sadanand Date said the youth was carrying an illegal weapon and had opened indiscriminate firing in a public place, and that he was killed in a police operation.
The 25-year-old man, Rahul Raj boarded the double-decker city bus plying on route No. 332 between Kurla and Andheri at Saki Naka stop around 10 am and went to the upper deck.
When the upper deck conductor Mahendra M. Ghule asked him to buy a ticket, he refused to do so and instead whipped out a revolver and pointed it at his head, a spokesman of the public transport service BEST said.
Raj also produced a chain and tied up one of the 25-odd commuters to a seat and pushed Ghule to a back seat in the bus.”
1. He refuses to buy a ticket
2. He threatens the conductor
3. He threatens him with a revolver
4. He carries an illegal weapon.
5. He ties up a fellow passenger with a chain
6. He fires indiscriminately.
Seems like a goonda to me. If I was travelling in that bus no matter whether I was in Patna or in Panipat, I would certainly feel that the man was a menace to society.
But on several Bihari e-fora such as 'cool bihari', apparently law abiding citizens are hailing this anti-social behaviour as
Heroism …
I don’t get it.
Did he fire at the police or was he shot in cold blood? That is the question which should be debated. Couldn’t he have been arrested? The young man was no ‘martyr’. To prop such a person up as a symbol of ‘Bihari pride’ is bizarre.
To condemn his killing [in case it was a fake encounter], and call for the punishment of the man who flouted the police manual is definitely something that must be done. If the action was deliberately done because of a bias against Biharis, then it will be logical to argue that Biharis will find it very difficult to get justice in Mumbai.
Friday, October 31, 2008
Bihar 'Martyr' or 'Maniac'?
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9 comments:
Hi Frank,
Some clarifications;
The conductor moved away after asking him for ticket as he did not respond.
After taking out his gun, he repeatedly said that he doesn't want to hurt anyone, that he wanted to hurt Raj Thackeray, that he wanted to talk to police commissioner.
He apologized to a lady who he accidentally pushed and helped her get down from the top deck. This was stated by her husband.
He threw down currency notes on which he had written that he wants to talk to the police commissioner.
He did not get any cellphone from the passengers, which is natural in these circumstances. He had left his cell phone charger at Patna; and had called his folks from a PCO the night before.
The Mumbai police have not given any detail on how the passenger was hurt. It may be from a ricochet, cross fire or police fire.
Apart from that he did not threaten or hurt any one.
Yet, he was surrounded by over 50 cops with bullet proof vests..and shot dead.
Police reports say they fired 22 rounds and he fired 4 rounds.
If the police thought him to endanger the life of other people, what were they doing firing 22 rounds in a public place... is that justified ?
He was guilty under Arms act, which itself is a very strict, non bailable offence.
Had he been shouting in Marathi that he wants to kill Lalu or Nitish or other Bihari netas, would the police have taken this extreme step ?
Two shots in head, two in belly ; what journal or law gives the cops right to shoot to kill. They could have shot him below waist, or worn him out; as they did in the exemplary case 5 years back when a subedar killed his senior officer and held hostages. Mumbai police actually brought his cousin from MP to dissuade him of his intentions.
That handling of hostage crisis is regarded as an exemplary case to tackle hostage crisis.That was Mumbai police too.
What did the cops fear.. they were wearing bullet proof clothing and had massive backup.. what cud a maverick with country made handgun have done to them ?
I have credible evidence to back up all that I wrote above; You can come down anytime and I will be glad to share them with you.
The least one can do to diffuse the already tense atmosphere is to constrain spreading of facts based on hearsay.
Thanks & regards,
www.biharfloodrelief2008.blogspot.com
`chandan
+919931763070
dear effkay
the attacks against northeners esp biharees has been going on for nearly 2 years. time after time we read or her of bihari bashing by the goons of the mns.
we have to stage when we biharees cannot just take the inuslts and humliation lying down.
we come to the saturation point.
This has to stop.
Ever time a son of bihar is killed or beaten up, anger swells in the bihari heart.
aftr all mumbai is the not the sole property of the maharatis
the big building, facories , reserve bak of india, etc. have been built and established with the money of the people of india....so every indian has a right to benefit from these organizations, be he bihari , madrasi etc.
the mns and that home minster is behaing like hitler did against the jews.......
im hurt, humilated and pained....
i cry for my bihari brothers in helplessness......
allah-en
Dear sir,
even I could not see any logic behind the youth's acts but let me add in the same breath that he could have been overpowered easily rather than being killed.
but I fail to understand why everybody is talking about this fellow only. what about the other fellow 4rm UP who was beaten to death in Mumbai by the MNS goons.
I hope that this phase gets over soon and innocent people don't lose their lives
Hi all,
How many bullets a country weapon carries or can fire before gettin g heated up is well known to a police man.
If I was there as a policeman I should have guessed by body language that this chap is not a criminal and his notes, voice and walk clearly indicates that he is not there to harm a commoner or police personnels and would surrender soon on talks as appears from TV shoots.Any sensible man could have made him surrender but the quality of personnel is to be questioned now, they were trigger happy sychophants trying to please there political bosses.
I dont appreciate the idea of taking a bus as hostage but again Raj must have undergone something which forced an educated young chap to take such drastic anti establishment step and police did something which they also know is not correct.
But the bottom line is that its high time to do some good job of mass employment generation in Bihar.
Sanjeev
This can only be justified if we accept that marathi police is biased and "Bihari" means nothing but a slang to them.
Though executed stupidly, i would like to equate this to our own bhagat singh and chandrasekhar azad's heroics - selfless actions for dear motherland.
i really feel that we need an image change apart from other things. first thing to do is to change the name of bihar to Magadh. [if bombay, madras, banglore can do it for their pride restoration, so can we - Bihar is no longer relevant there are no widespread bodh vihars to gain motivation from.
we need to create self employment to fellow biharis - or magadhis - there are several options - from collective veg farming, dairy, agrotech, poultry, bee keeping, oil production, retailing, mushrooms, microfinancing, self help group, imports from china, construction, collective transport services, other low capital startups, including manpower placement groups, and establishment of medical and engineering colleges in bihar and jharkhand.
I dunno if Rahul Raj can be called a Martyr or not, but i am sure whatever happened at that day in Mumbai was condemnable and was slap on our face. The violent reaction of Rahul Raj was nothing but a helpless cry of the frustrated and disarmed member of community.Maharashtra police could have acted in more prudent way. I fully endorse points raised by Mr. Chandan. A 25 yrs old with a country made pistol was not unsurmountable. Maharashtra police that was once compared to Scotland yard police, could have easily oeverpowered him with little efforts.
Mr. Frank kindly ponder before brandishing someone maniac.
The man was evidently psychologically disturbed.
The police probably used excessive force.
This is a human rights question and not a 'Bihari' question.
I am appalled by the lack of sensitivity of FK. Provocation of Biharis has been there for a long time. A reaction is but natural. People under extreme stress, specially youth, are known to react violently, often inflicting maximum violence onto themselves. the sensitive way to handle such a situation is to show understanding. With time, tempers cool down. Branding him a maniac is clearly uncalled for.
An independent enquiry by CBI or a supreme court judge is essential to clear the air. Doubts have been raised whether the bullet came from Rahul Raj country pistol or is it a police bullet which ricocheted.
Hi all,
The dust seemed to have settled surrounding the hype created by the 'encounter' of Rahul Raj. I don't know whether he was a maniac or not but his killing by the mumbai cops was surely unjustified. I understand that when u comfront someone opening fire or with a pistol, u don't go and tell him "Mate, let's have some coffee and talk". but the moot question is not whether he was a martyr or a maniac, the point is that Rahul Raj should have been taken into custody rahter than being killed in cold blood.this act by the mumbai is surely codemenable.........yesterday it was Pawan 4rm Nalanda who fell victim to this anti-bihari flame, today it was Rahul........2morrow it may be some Rajeev or Sanjeev.
the prevailing situation in Maharastra is worrying..........we should look towards a solution to all this untoward and unwanted stuffs......
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