MUMBAI: Even as the body of Rahul Raj, the 26-year-old youth from Bihar who was killed in a police encounter in Mumbai on Monday morning for allegedly hijacking a bus and holding the passengers hostage, was flown by Indian Airlines to New Delhi on way to Patna yesterday afternoon after a post-mortem at the government JJ Hospital, there was no respite in the exchange of words between the Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister and Home Minister R.R. Patil.
Nitish who paid a visit to the parents of the deceased in Patna yesterday, deplored the statement of Patil on Monday in Nagpur, who spoke of the “bullet for bullet” response for those who attempt to take law into their hands and try to create law and order situation.
“This statement of Patil is irresponsible and not befitting the post of a deputy chief minister and home minister. He should have first verified the facts and then spoken on the matter,” Nitish told journalists outside the residence of Rahul.
In a veiled reference to the ongoing incidents in Mumbai where candidates for the railway exams were attacked and beaten by supporters of Raj Thackeray, the leader of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), Nitish lambasted Raj and said that there was no issue relating between Maharashtra and Bihar.
“We are a part of one country and are one. But some leaders are unnecessarily fueling hatred and sowing discord between the people from the two states,” he said and demanded a inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) into the encounter killing.
Nitish insisted that even though Rahul had a revolver in his hand, he could have easily been disarmed without ever resorting to the action of killing him and pumping in fourteen bullets, when eyewitnesses had said that Rahul did not fire directly, and that he had fired only once.
It appears now that the encounter is now snowballing into a political issue. Patil was stubborn in his approach to the issue and justified the police action. Taking potshots at the comments of Nitish and federal ministers Lalu Prasad Yadav and Ram Vilas Paswan, Patil told journalists that there was no need for anyone to teach how the Maharashtrians should behave.
“We know extremely well how to protect and defend our state. If someone holds a weapon in his hand and creates ruckus and terror, then it is equally justified to respond to him in that language,” Patil responded strongly and alleged that the politicians from Bihar have embarked on spreading their Bihar politics in Maharashtra.
“At other times these Bihari politicians were fighting each other, but on the issue of the encounter killing of a Bihari youth, they have united and come together on a common platform, but ignored what the youth had done,” Patil said
In another significant development, disappointed with the Congress and its ally the Nationalist Congress Party more than 300 Muslims, most of them, important functionaries in the Congress and NCP, joined the Shiv Sena in Thane district on Monday, in the presence of former labor minister and Sena leader Sabir Sheikh.
