A man was arrested and a chowkidar (police watchman) was suspended on Sunday in Bihar’s Ahiyapur village after an altercation between two groups of the same family resulted in three deaths and two serious injuries, police said.
Buxar Superintendent of Police (SP), Shubham Arya, said: “The preliminary cause appears to be a dispute that started Friday with a verbal altercation between two parties of an extended family over the unloading of sand and stone, which was initially resolved.” However, early on Saturday the dispute again ensued over the placement of a sand vehicle near a local canal in Ahiyapur, the officer said.
The SP said that a case has been registered based on a written application naming 19 relatives and three of their associates at Rajpur police station.
“During the raids, one of the accused family members, Om Prakash Singh, has been formally arrested and another accused has been detained for questioning. Further raids are ongoing to apprehend other individuals involved in the incident,” the officer said.
Meanwhile, Rajpur’s local chowkidar, Ritesh Pandey, was also suspended with immediate effect for “indifference, indiscipline and arbitrariness in the discharge of duty”. The officer said: “Pandey failed to inform the SHO about the escalating dispute following the initial altercation on Friday. Had the local chowkidar reported the incident, such a grave crime could have been prevented.”
SP Arya said that both parties engaged in physical fight and gunfire, resulting in the “deaths of three individuals at the scene and serious injuries to two others, who have been referred to Varanasi Trauma Centre”.
An alleged video of the incident circulating on social media shows both groups initially attacking each other with sticks before gunfire erupted.
