Singham DIG at Saharsa.

Saharsa, 13th January, 2012. It is a typical replay of the scenes from Hindi block-bluster “Singham”, when an active, vigilant and dynamic Deputy Inspector General of Police Dr Paresh Saxena, a 1994-batch IPS officer widely known for his professional integrity and achievements, like the hero of the film is hounded by criminals in connivance with some Police officials and a section of Media, for cracking on criminals and taking corrupt, complacent and docile Police officers at sensitive Police Stations in Kosi Range to task. However, the common people are with the DIG for drastically reducing crime graph in the region. Even the simple villager in the area could guess the real reason when the Incharge of Saur Bazar Police Station, suspended for repeatedly ignoring the order to arrest some criminals, alleged nearly a month later before media that the DIG had verbally abused him and threatened to kill him.

Kosi region is the grazing ground for some notorious criminal turned politicians like Anand Mohan, Pappu Yadav, Kishore Kumar Munna et al. Anand Mohan and Pappu Yadav are in jail and Mohan is lodged at Saharsa Jail itself. It is more than evident that the command of Anand Mohan runs from the VIP ward of the jail itself and even in jail it is Mohan who decides the wards for the inmates. Mohan was visibly irritated over the raid in Jail in which several mobile phones, charger and sim card were seized even from VIP ward. The encore against the DIG, it seems is schemed at the VIP ward, which also houses Umesh Dahlan, another criminal turned politician arrested on the intervention of the DIG, and with support of Kishore Kumar Munna, otherwise at loggerheads with Anand Mohan. Kishore Kumar Munna enjoys excellent rapport with the Superintendent of Police at Saharsa Md Rahman.

Dr Paresh Saxena joined as DIG of the Kosi Range at Saharsa in August 2011. As a ‘no-nonsense’ tolerating officer he immediately got to the task of cleansing the Police system and crime at Saharsa. Several pending cases were taken up in the region and with Police finalizing their reports, trial were speeded up in most of the cases. Most important was arrest of notorious criminals like Manoj Yadav, Umesh Dahlan, Sashi Kumar Singh alias Chunnu et al. Manoj Yadav elected as Pramukh of Patarghat Block at Saharsa, the main accused in Bhabani Carnage and with nearly 52 heinous criminal cases against him and pending FIRs was moving around freely. Santosh Yadav, a dreaded criminal was killed in an encounter at Saharsa. With heat turning on against criminals, interestingly those who got most inconvenient were some Police Station Incharges, who otherwise had issued ‘free passes’ to most of the criminals.

Says Congress leader and Delhi University Associate Professor Suraj Yadav, “ Mr Saxena is one of the officers who are trying to reiterate rule of law against rule of jungle in the so-called ‘Su-shasan’ of Nitish regime. We are just keeping our fingers crossed that he is not prematurely removed to appease the criminal-police nexus”. Several law-abiding citizens of the area echo his concerns.

Dr Paresh Saxena has been in the eye of the storm in past also. In 2008, then an Assistant Inspector General (Inspection) he gave Bihar’s leading politicians goose bumps when he served a legal notice on Urban Development minister Bhola Singh of the BJP as a precursor to a defamation suit. A deeply upset Saxena, a medical doctor by training, wanted an apology from the minister for the insulting remarks Bhola Singh made about Saxena at a public ceremony in Gaya then. This was the first time in India that an IPS officer had served a legal notice alleging defamation by a sitting minister. The fire in him remains , it seems.