As many as seven police officers were suspended on Wednesday over the alleged negligence in connection with the mass shooting in Bihar’s Begusarai district on Tuesday evening.

A 25-year-old man died and 10 others were injured after two bike-borne assailants resorted to indiscriminate firing at 10 locations in Begusarai district yesterday.

Speaking to ANI, ADG (HQ) Jitendra Singh Gangwar said, “Prima facie, our patrolling party was on the streets. Still, they either couldn't stop the criminals or couldn't do the checking. Seven Police officials have been suspended with immediate effect in this connection."

The ADG said an investigation is under and a separate team collected the footage of the CCTV cameras, installed in different locations through which the two criminals passed and verified the footage to identify the criminals.

“Checking was done all through the night. Neighbouring districts have also been alerted. A separate investigation team collected CCTV footage and the criminals can be seen on them. We're verifying. A few people have been detained and they are being questioned,” said Singh.

On Tuesday, two bike-borne assailants resorted to indiscriminate firing at Godhna village under Bachwara police station at around 5.30 p.m. One Nitish Kumar sustained bullet injury in the incident. The attackers then went to Begusarai-Muzaffarpur NH 28 and fired at Ayodhya Chowk under Teghra police station injuring one Dipak Kumar.

The two assailants then reached Adharpur village on NH 28 and shot at a finance company employee Vishal Solanki. Then they reached Pipra Malti Chowk under Barauni police station and killed a person named Chandan Kumar, a resident of Pipra village in Begusarai. They also shot another person at the same place, reported IANS.

After the fourth incident, the accused left NH 28 from zero miles and headed towards NH 31 connecting Patna. They opened fire on a 45-year-old man identified as Bharat Yadav at Barauni Thermal Power Chowk. Subsequently, after covering some distance, the accused again shot at Prasant Kumar Rajak (35) and Ranjeet Yadav (25), and Jito Paswan (37).

Following this, the attackers travelled for around 30 kilometres on NH 28 and NH 31 during one hour of carnage and then disappeared, reported IANS.

Begusarai SP Yogendra Kumar yesterday said that out of the 10 injured people, 9 of them are now stable and have been discharged from the hospital. The SP further said that the attackers were caught on CCTV camera in one place and police are making efforts to identify them.

Yogendra Kumar also claimed that mass firing was done to create fear among common people. "We have some clues about the accused. The CCTV footage is under the scanner. We have also alerted police officials of the adjoining Patna, Muzaffarpur, Samastipur, and Vaishali districts,” the SP said as quoted by IANS.

Image courtesy: ANI