A person was killed and three others were injured today in police firing during a clash with villagers in Bihar's Darbhanga district, over a burial on land allotted to three persons by the government.
The clash took place at Habidih village, about 30 km from the district headquarter town of Darbhanga, when the administration allowed the burial of a body on a piece of land allotted to three persons by the government in 1956, District Magistrate Chandrasekhar Singh said.
The body had been lying since yesterday in the face of resistance by some villagers against the burial on the land. The body was buried today there with protection from the administration.
There is a graveyard and a crematorium side by side at Habidih. The body was buried in a plot of land that is part of a five 'katha' land next to them, which had been allotted to three persons of the village by the state government in 1956, and triggered the violence.
The infuriated villagers threw stones at the police present at the spot, prompting the forces to fire in retaliation.
The police firing claimed one life and injured three, Singh said.
Superintendent of Police A K Satyabir said the bodyguard from whose carbine a bullet was fired has been arrested.
The SDO's bodyguard and one sub-inspector were injured in the stone pelting by villages after which he (the bodyguard) opened fire without permission, due to which a person was killed, the SP said.
Meanwhile, the DM said Mohammad Aftab, the bodyguard from whose carbine the bullets are believed to have been fired and which killed a 23-year-old man, has been suspended.
Commissioner R K Khandelwal said a probe has been ordered in the case.
Singh said Rs 4 lakh has been paid as ex-gratia to the kin of the person killed. In addition to this, Rs 11 lakh would be paid to the family along with a monthly pension of Rs 11,000 as per the SC/ST Act.
The DM and the SP are camping at the spot to keep the situation under control.
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