The father of the daring Bihar girl Richa Bharti has been shot down by assailants in her native village of Nalanda district in Bihar. Richa Bharti had risen to fame after she had bravely refused to follow a judge’s order, who had asked her to distribute copies of ‘Quran’ to obtain bail.
According to the reports, the father of Richa Bharti, Mohan Kumar, was murdered due to a personal rivalry.
Speaking to OpIndia, Richa Bharti said that her father was a regular in their native village. On the night of 19th February, her father and mother were returning to their house from the fields at about 8:30 in the night. The assailants were hiding behind the tractor, lurking in the dark. Richa tells OpIndia that the assailants shot her father through the ear and then, used the towel he was carrying to strangle him and drag him across the field. After dragging him, they disposed of his body in the nearby well.
An FIR has been filed by the mother of Richa Bharti, Meena Devi, in the case. Richa Bharti’s mother has said in the FIR that two assailants, Chandramouli Prasad and Ranjit Kumar, started firing on Mohan Kumar before he was dragged and thrown in the well. Other than Chandramouli and Ranjit, a case has been filed against 8 unknown assailants.
A distraught Richa says that the murder was a result of the rivalry that the assailants had harboured for many years and had planned to kill him for a long time. The murder had nothing to do with her brave stand regarding the distribution of the Quran.
She has also claimed that no arrests have been made so far and the police has assured her that the assailants will be nabbed. The family of Bharti has provided names of 7-8 assailants and the police has said that the investigation is on-going.
Who is Richa Bharti?
A 19-year old college student, Richa Bharti was arrested by Jharkhand police in 2019 for sharing a post on Facebook that criticized the thief Tabrez Ansar in Jharkhand. In her post, she had questioned why Kashmiri Pandits did not take up arms even after their genocide while people from other religious community became extremists.
Tabrez Ansari, a 24-year-old man from Jharkhand, was allegedly brutally beaten by a mob in Jharkhand on the 18th of June on theft accusation. He had died on 22nd in police custody allegedly of cardiac arrest.
An FIR was filed against her by a local leader from the Anjuman Islamia Committee on the grounds that the post she shared had hurt his religious sentiments. The FIR was filed immediately, and within 2 hours, she was arrested by the SHO on Saturday.
As the arrests resulted in severe outrage, a judgement by the Ranchi Court judgement added fuel to the fire when it was ordered that she would be granted bail only if she distributed five copies of the Quran. Judicial Magistrate Manish Kumar directed Richa Bharti to donate a copy of the holy book to the Anjuman Islamia Committee and the rest four to the libraries of different schools and colleges.
Following the order, there was a massive outrage across the country, who had demanded the judge to withdraw his order. Later, the Ranchi Court, which had ordered Richa Bharti to distribute 5 copies of the Quran as a condition for bail, had taken back its ridiculous judgment. The investigating officer in the case had formally requested that the condition for donating the Quran be done away with due to “difficulties in its application”.
The controversial order of the judge had attracted the wrath of the public at large. There was huge angst among people, and demands for the judge’s sacking were also raised. People had donated a large amount of money to pay for Richa Bharti’s legal fees as well.
