What are the Nitish Kumar’s police doing in Bihar? The question is being furiously asked everywhere in the state following alarming rise in number of rape cases in recent weeks despite frequent meetings of the chief minister with officials over the law and order situation in the state and all the big claims to put a curb on such incidents. According to an official report, more than 7,300 incidents of rape/gang-rape have taken place in the past six years of the Nitish Kumar regime.

Of them, around a dozen incidents of gang-rape have been reported only in the past one fortnight, indicating how things have just slipped out of Kumar’s hands.

In a latest incident, an intermediate girl student was lifted, gang-raped and then thrown out along the road in Saran district on Friday night.

The victim girl was returning home on cycle after collecting her Class 12 marksheet and other related documents when she was dragged inside a car by five youths and gang-raped in the running car before being thrown away.

It was only after the local villagers noticed the girl lying uncons-cious that they called up her parents who admitted her to the hospital where her condition is state to be critical.

The police have arrested one accused in this connection while raids are on to nab the other absconding accused persons.

“We are conducting raids to nab the absconding accused persons. They will be caught soon,” the local Saran district superintendent of police Hari Kishore Rai said.

Even more horrible incident took place at Sendhwa village which falls under Paras Bigha police station in Jehanabad district last night.

Although the miscreants had entered into the home with the intention to rob belongings, they eventually raped both mother-in-law and daughter-in-law before fleeing with the booty. In this connection, a case has been registered against seven persons.

Another incident of gangrape was reported from Raghopur police station in Supaul district yesterday where a teenaged girl was allegedly gang-raped.

The victim was returning home in the evening after tending goats when three youths kidnapped her, took her to an isolated place and allegedly raped her at the pistol-point.

The victim has been admitted to the local hospital while a case has been registered with the local police.

On Wednesday, a Muslim woman and her daughter were badly beaten up, tonsured and paraded through the streets in Vaishali district after they had resisted rape attempts. The women were alone in their home when some youths barged inside and allegedly tried to rape them. When they protested, the accused persons dragged them out of home, got their heads tonsured by calling a barber and then paraded them through the streets, blaming them for having “loose character”. The police have arrested a village council official and the barber in this regard.

Last week, two Dalit sisters were bodily lifted by a group of eight youths and allegedly gang-raped in Sitamarhi district. The victim girls were walking outside their home on the fateful evening when the accused persons kidnapped them, took her to an isolated place and gang-raped her.

Angry at the incident, former parliamentarian Pappu Yadav has offered a cash reward of Rs One lakh to anyone who kills the rapists.