Bihar speaker, CM, home minister visits slain CRPF homes for support to families

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday called on the bereaved families of slain CRPF constable Ratan Kumar Thakur and inspector Pintu Kumar Singh who were killed in the Pulwama terror attack and the Handwara encounter respectively. Kumar visited Thakur village in Kahalgaon sub-division of Bhagalpur district where he met his wife Rajnandini Devi, father Ramniranjan Thakur and brother Milan Kumar, spending about half an hour at their place.

The Chief Minister was accompanied by state assembly Speaker Vijay Kumar Chaudhary and Principal Secretary (Home) Amir Subhani, among others. The slain CRPF constables father later told reporters that he presented the chief minister with a charter of demands which included requests for setting up of a degree college named after Thakur, a government job for his wife and brother, state assistance for the marriage of his sister and the education of his son aged four years.

He said the chief minister assured that the demands would be given a "sympathetic consideration". Kumar, thereafter, flew to Begusarai district where he visited the village of Pintu Kumar Singh in Bakhri block. The Chief Minister offered floral tributes before a picture of the slain CRPF inspector and consoled his bereaved family members.

Notably, the absence of any dignitary at the Patna airport where Singh's body was brought from Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday had caused much resentment among locals. They had questioned why the stained CRPF inspector was treated differently from those martyred in the Pulwama terror attack. The bodies of Thakur and Sanjay Kumar Sinha from Masaurhi block in Patna district who were killed in Pulwama was received at the airport by the chief minister, Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and several members of the state cabinet. Many dignitaries had also attended the funerals of Thakur and Sinha.

Residents of Pintu Kumar Singhs village had also complained that a host of dignitaries had turned up, barely an hour afterwards, to welcome Prime Minister Narendra Modi who was in the city to address a rally but nobody bothered to be present when the body had landed. Kumar had visited Sanjay Kumar Sinha's residence on Saturday last.

(With inputs from agencies.)