From Prahar to Muskan, Bihar cops attempt to refurbish image of state

Patna, Oct 22 (IANS) The Bihar government has been continuously facing criticism over the poor law and order situation and hence the state police has been trying to change the perception among the common people about Bihar.

In the last couple of years, the Bihar police has taken several measures like "Operation Prahar", "Operation Muskan" and "Operation Muskan Part 2" to check crime and arrest as many criminals as possible.

Additional Director General of Police (Headquarter) Jitendra Singh Gangwar said that Operation Prahar is giving good results as 8541 criminals have been arrested on an average per month from January to September this year.

“We have constituted Vajra teams dedicated to nab hardcore criminals in the state under Operation Prahar. We have arrested 76874 criminals across the state in the first nine months of this year. This includes 3627 criminals who were involved in murder cases and 2304 criminals arrested for attacking police teams. We have also recovered 2219 firearms from the possession of criminals,” Gangwar said.

"Compared to 2022, in 2023 the number of arrests is higher,” Gangwar added.

In 2022, the Bihar police arrested 88649 criminals under various charges. The average one month arrests in 2022 were 7387 including 5916 criminals arrested on the charge of murder, others for attacking police teams and recovery of 2695 firearms.

“The Vajra team was formed not only to crack cases post crime incidents but also to arrest criminals before the incident. We have a local intelligence network across the state which passes information to the Vajra team. They coordinate with each other with the support of police stations in their areas,” Gangwar said.

“Recently, we arrested 9 hardcore criminals from a village that comes under the Neemchak Bathani police station in Gaya district. Four of them have criminal cases lodged in neighbouring Jharkhand. We seized two rifles, 24 live cartridges and one countrymade pistol. We also arrested 3 criminals from a village under the Vijaypur police station in Vaishali district on October 16 and recovered firearms and live cartridges. They were planning to commit crimes. The Vajra team also arrested two arms smugglers from a village that comes under the Madhepura police station and seized 3 sophisticated pistols, 6 magazines and a bike,” he said.

“The Vajra team has also cracked some of the sensational cases from districts like Saran, Madhubani and Bhojpur. It has arrested 3 criminals named Chunchun alias Generator, Sailesh Kumar and one more who were associated with a biker gang on September 7 and 8 from Saran. Similarly, we have arrested two accused Ranjit Kumar and Mannu Kumar from Bhojpur soon after they overtook a pickup van and robbed the driver of a mobile phone and Rs 60,000 cash,” the officer said.

The police also launched Operation Muskan to prevent mobile phones and chain snatchings in the state.

The ADGP said that the police had recovered 7305 mobile phones from January to October 15 this year and returned them to the owners.

“The maximum recovery happened from Samastipur with the police seizing 835 stolen and snatched mobiles. The recovery in the areas under Patna railway is 687, 372 in Motihari, 354 in Rohtas, 353 in Katihar, 349 in Gopalganj, and 304 in Gaya district,” Gangwar said.

“After the recovery the mobile phones are handed over to the victims. Operation Muskan is being appreciated not only here but by the people of other states also. A youth from Namakkal district of Tamil Nadu became a victim of mobile snatching. His phone location was traced to Bhagalpur district. He contacted the SSP of Bhagalpur and the mobile phone was recovered within 24 hours. After following the legal procedures, we have sent the mobile phone to his address via courier. Several such cases have taken place where mobiles were snatched in other states and if there location was found in Bihar, we recovered them and arrested the criminals,” Gangwar said.

“Keeping in view the success of Operation Muskan, we have launched Muskan Part 2 this year to check vehicle thefts. So far, we have recovered 2263 bikes till August 31 this year,” Gangwar stated.