On Wednesday, March 1, a Doctor went missing in Bihar’s capital Patna. Dr. Sanjay Kumar, head of the pharmacology department at Nalanda Medical College and Hospital (NMCH), Patna has been missing since Wednesday evening when he left for Muzaffarnagar for the inspection of a college there. On Thursday, the family of Dr. Kumar filed a case of kidnapping at Patrakar Nagar police station.
Dr. Sanjay Kumar is the exam controller and head of the Pharmacology department at NMCH Patna, and he went missing on Wednesday evening after parking his car on the hospital premise at around 7 pm. He had told his wife that he was going for the inspection of a college in Muzaffarnagar in another car. That car was later found abandoned at Mahatma Gandhi Setu connecting Patna and Hajipur. Both the mobile phones of the doctor were also recovered from the abandoned car.
In her complaint, Dr. Kumar’s wife Saloni Kumari, who is a retired professor at the College of Commerce, Arts, and Science stated that Sanjay Kumar had informed her over a phone call that he is going to Muzaffarpur for an inspection of a college in another car. Saloni last spoke to her husband at around 7:42 pm on Wednesday, when he told her that his car got stuck in a traffic jam. Later, despite calling several times, Dr. Kumar did not pick up her calls.
Station House Officer (SHO), Patrkar Nagar, Manoranjan Bharti stated that after the complaint, police put the phone number of the missing doctor on surveillance. Following this, the phone was traced to an abandoned car found near pillar number 46 of the Gandhi Setu. The door of the car was locked and both his mobile phones were in the vehicle itself.
Meanwhile, the Indian Medical Association has voiced its displeasure that Dr. Sanjay Kumar has not been found despite the fact that several days have passed since he went missing.
A letter addressed to Bihar DGP and jointly signed by IMA president Dr. Shyam Narayan Prasad and state secretary Dr. Ashok Kumar read “The IMA learned that none of the CCTV cameras on the Mahatma Gandhi Setu, where the doctor’s car was found abandoned, were working, which made it difficult for the police to make progress in the case.”
The IMA further asserted that there was no proper forensic examination of the car conducted.
ASP Kamya Mishra has said that the car was recovered near Gandhi Setu, however, it will be too early to say that this is a case of kidnapping or something else as the family members of the missing person have not received any ransom call.
Mishra also informed that a camera has been found on the Ganga bridge and footage has been recovered.
Patna | We found a camera on the Ganga bridge that was from a construction company & found the footage. Around 7:38 am the doctor’s car was spotted and then the doctor left it there, later recovered by police: Kamya Mishra, ASP Sadar Patna on NMHC doctor missing case pic.twitter.com/o0AfFbZ3Et
— ANI (@ANI) March 5, 2023
Earlier, Patna senior superintendent of police (SSP) MS Dhillon said that an SDRF team on Friday launched a search from Gaighat to find Dr. Kumar. He added that the police have scanned the CCTV footage which showed he was alone in his car.
SSP Dhillon also claimed that during the investigation they got to know that Dr. Sanjay Kumar was in depression.
“We also quizzed some colleagues and found out that he was depressed,” SSP Dhillon said.
The missing doctor Suyashi’s daughter said that her father had no animosity against anybody. She added that although the police looked into the calls he made or received on his mobile phone during the prior three to four days, they could not find anything substantial.
The CCTV camera of a construction company has recorded a video of Dr. Kumar. The video was captured on Wednesday at 7:41 p.m. According to reports, the CCTV footage showed that after getting out of the car, the doctor himself closed the door before setting out on foot by himself in the direction of Hajipur.
Bollywood actor Shekhar Suman, who is also the cousin of the missing doctor’s wife Saloni Kumar, appealed to Bihar CM Nitish Kumar to help his cousin. Suman alleged that Dr. Sanjay Kumar has been abducted.
“Requesting @NitishKumar @officecmbihar to please help my 1st cousin in Patna Saloni Kumar a professor whose husband Dr.Sanjay Kumar attached with NMCH has apparently been abducted while on his way to Muzzafurpur on Gandhi Setu where his car was found abandoned on 1st March,” Shekhar Suman tweeted on March 3.
Requesting @NitishKumar @officecmbihar to please help my 1st cousin in Patna Saloni Kumar a professor whose husband Dr.Sanjay Kumar attached with NMCH has apparently been abducted while on his way to Muzzafurpur on Gandhi Setu where his car was found abandoned on 1st March.
— Shekhar Suman (@shekharsuman7) March 3, 2023
The era of kidnapping in Bihar during Lalu Yadav’s rule
Today the Rashtriya Janta Dal (RJD) and Nitish Kumar’s JDU are together ruling the state of Bihar after Kumar ditched the Bhartiya Janata Party in August last year. 15 years of Lalu Yadav’s term in Bihar is often called as an era of ‘Jungle Raj’. There was a time in Bihar when an ‘industry’ rose sharply and it was a ‘kidnapping industry’. Kidnapping was one of the most preferred means of earning money. The nexus that formed between officials, mafias, and politicians were never seen before in the history of Independent India.
2005 saw the end of Lalu Raj. Even if we focus solely on that year and ignore the subsequent 14 years, the figures are horrific. In Bihar, there were 3471 reported murders in 2005. There were also reports of 251 kidnapping occurrences and 1147 rape incidents. In Bihar, 3948 persons were murdered in 2004. 1390 incidences of rape and 411 kidnappings for ransom were also reported.
Lalu Yadav’s government saw the worst law and order crisis. It was in the such horrible shape that if someone had not returned home by six o’clock, the family and relatives would have been in chaos. Nobody could predict when they would be slain or disappear may be to never return.
As per a 1995 (when Lalu Prasad Yadav was the Chief Minister of Bihar) report by the Associated Press, kidnapping was becoming a big business in Bihar. There were over 40 kidnapping gangs operating in the state during that time. “About 40 million Indian rupees (approximately U-S dollars 1.2 million) are estimated to change hands every year in the lucrative ransom business,” an AP report stated.
The rising lawlessness in the state of Bihar points towards a possible ‘full-fleged’ return of Jungle raj in the state.
