Patna: The controversial police encounter of a youth named Bharat Tiwari in Bhojpur has triggered a major political storm in Bihar, forcing Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary to order a judicial probe into the incident. The state government has also suspended six police personnel as opposition parties and leaders within the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) raised serious questions over the police’s actions.
The crisis began following a video that circulated on social media on June 18, which reportedly showed Tiwari holding a firearm and expressing anger against the local police administration. Towards the end of the footage, Tiwari was seen throwing the weapon down in front of the police. However, his subsequent death in a police encounter has severely dented the credibility of the state police force and put the Bihar government on the defensive.
While Bihar Police maintained that the pistol seen in Tiwari’s possession during the viral video was illegal, the incident has renewed the focus on the widespread availability of illicit firearms across the state.
Data from the State Crime Records Bureau (SCRB) spanning 2015 to 2024 reveals a direct correlation between the proliferation of unlicensed weapons and the rising graph of violent crimes, including murder, extortion, kidnapping for ransom, robbery, and highway dacoits. According to National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) figures, Bihar consistently ranked among the top five states in the country for violent crimes between 2017 and 2022.
The SCRB data highlights a significant surge in the recovery of illegal firearms over the last decade. In 2015, police seized 2,356 country-made weapons, a figure that more than doubled to 4,981 by 2024. On average, Bihar Police registered 2,913 cases under the Arms Act and recovered 3,628 illegal weapons along with 17,239 rounds of ammunition annually during this nine-year period.
The capital city of Patna recorded the highest volume of violent crimes and illegal weapon seizures, averaging 384.4 arms recoveries per year. It is followed by Muzaffarpur with an annual average of 222.3 recoveries. Cartridge seizures across the state also registered a sharp increase, jumping from 9,449 in 2015 to 23,451 in 2024, with Aurangabad leading the ammunition recovery charts, followed by Patna and Gaya.
Officials attribute this vast network to multiple channels, including illegal small-scale manufacturing units operating within rural and urban pockets of Bihar. The number of uncovered illegal arms manufacturing units surged from 13 in 2018 to 70 in 2023. Additionally, the illicit supply chain relies on weapons procured from other states, such as Jammu & Kashmir and Nagaland, using forged or fraudulent arms licenses.
Senior administrative officials stated that the ongoing judicial inquiry will examine the exact sequence of events leading to Tiwari’s encounter, even as security agencies look to intensify operations against the state’s deep-rooted illegal arms syndicates.