Patna, Sep 25 Amid outrage over incidents of molestation and moral policing being reported from various Bihar districts, the police on Friday took cognisance of more such instances, though these had occurred months ago.
In Kishanganj, a Muslim-majority district, a video surfaced of a group of vigilantes harassing a young woman for “roaming around with a Hindu man”, police said.
In a statement, the district police said it has identified five persons involved in the incident, which had taken place a few months ago.
According to the police, an SIT was formed as soon as the video surfaced on the intervening night of Thursday and Friday and, upon technical investigation, it was found that the incident had taken place close to a railway station “in April or May”.
“The victim was identified and traced. She said the dispute was settled following intervention of the local panchayat,” the statement said.
“Raids are being conducted, nonetheless, for the five accused… Most of the accused are said to be eking out a living in states like Gujarat, Karnatak, Haryana and Punjab. All will be tracked down and brought to book,” it said.
Another such incident came to light from Banka district, where the police arrested one of the accused seen in a video, shot close to the Mandar hills, of a woman being harassed along with her male friend.
According to the police, the incident was of June and while Abdullah, who had extorted Rs 1,500 from the couple before they were let go of, has been arrested, a search was on for Nitish Kumar Rai and Vikas Kumar, all of whom have been booked under various sections of the BNS, besides the IT Act, for uploading the video on social media.
Yet another incident has been reported from Samastipur where, incidentally, four persons were arrested a day ago for allegedly molesting a minor girl by a roadside.
The Samastipur Police said the incident appeared to be “more than a year old, having taken place in August, 2025”, but since the girl appeared to be a minor, a case was registered under the POCSO Act, besides BNS and the IT Act.
Four accused have been identified, out of whom Dharmendra Sahni has been arrested, while a search was on for the remaining ones.
Bihar has of late been in news for molestation of young women, some of them minor girls, by self-styled moral policing groups. The first such incident was reported earlier this week from Jamui, where three of the accused turned out to be minors themselves, while two others were arrested following a police encounter, which left one of them with a bullet injury.
The incident had prompted the state women’s commission to seek an explanation from the local administration, even as the BJP-led government in Bihar drew flak from Congress leaders like Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, besides parties based outside the state like the Trinamool Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party.
The episodes have also triggered a political slugfest, with the RJD accusing the BJP-led government of playing caste politics by highlighting that many of the accused belonged to the Yadav caste, who are largely supporters of the opposition party.
Some of the NDA leaders, like ministers Shrawon Kumar and Ashok Choudhary, downplayed the incidents, calling these “minor occurrences”, while Union minister Chirag Paswan, who represented Jamui twice in a row before moving base to Hajipur, has called for “accountability”.
Paswan, who heads the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), said, “Such incidents are shameful and the government must not try to run away from its responsibility. Merely arrests and encounters are not sufficient. Action must also be taken against officials who might have been guilty of dereliction of duty.”
Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor has claimed that such incidents have been “on the rise ever since Samrat Choudhary took over as the chief minister” and alleged that the BJP leader was “an uneducated criminal”.
The police has maintained that in almost all such incidents, it has taken suo motu cognisance, as the victims shied away from coming up with a formal complaint.
(PTI News)
