Bihar fake encounter case: Justice Vinod Kumar Sinha meets the victim’s family, inspects site

The retired Patna High Court Judge Vinod Kumar Sinha, who is heading the judicial commission formed by the State government to investigate the alleged encounter of Bharat Bhushan Tiwari, reached the village Bilauti on Thursday (June 25, 2026) and met the grieving family members of the deceased youth, noted down their statements and also reached the spot of incident.

The judicial commission was formed by the NDA-led Bihar government after a State cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary on June 24, which approved the State law department’s proposal for an independent inquiry into the incident, which, of late, has created much hue and cry in the State as an alleged fake encounter.

“Whenever a problem comes, the concerned government (State) immediately moves forward, and in this incident of (Bhojpur district) too, a highest order of commission of inquiry has been formed and whoever is found guilty, action will be taken against them”, said Mr. Choudhary on Thursday (June 25) in a party function in Patna. He spoke on the issue for the first time after a week of the incident, which had happened on June 17 at Bilauti village under Shahpur police station of Bhojpur district in Bihar.

But, “no term of reference to the inquiry commission was declared to the public at least so far, which is a normal practice, neither the time limit of the inquiry commission spelt out”, some lawmakers of the State, however, rued while speaking to The Hindu on Thursday (June 25).

On June 17, Bharat Bhushan Tiwari, 28, was gunned down in an alleged encounter by local policemen after a visit by them to his village home on June 16 had gone viral on social media, showing Tiwari with a country-made pistol in his hand rebuking policemen to go away from his place.

The next day, on June 17, he was killed in an alleged encounter by the policemen, and since then, the incident has sparked a storm after several political party leaders and enraged locals from nearby states and districts too had gathered there to declare the alleged police encounter as “fake and fabricated”. Later, the government put some local policemen under suspension, lodged FIR against five policemen and formed a judicial commission to probe the incident.

The Bhojpur Superintendent of Police, along with a posse of policemen, also accompanied Mr Sinha to the village. Earlier on June 24, thousands of people had gathered at the village to hold a mahapanchayat (grand village committee meeting) in memory of the deceased youth against whom no criminal record was found lodged in police stations, they claimed.

“We’ve full faith in the judicial commission and hope that justice will be delivered to us. We want strict action against those responsible for my brother’s killing”, said Chandan Tiwari, younger brother of deceased Bharat Bhushan Tiwari, to gathered media persons at the village on Thursday.

But, who is former Patna High Court judge Vinod Kumar Sinha who heads the judicial commission to probe the incident?

According to available reports, former Patna HC judge Vinod Kumar Sinha, born on April 23, 1958, had completed his law degree from Patna Law College in the year 1983 and joined the Bihar Superior Judicial Service as an Additional District and Sessions Judge in 1997.

He also had discharged his duties as District Judge of Samastipur and Legal Remembrancer, Government of Bihar. He also held the position of office of Registrar General, Patna HC and was elevated as an Additional Judge of Patna High Court on 9^th December, 2016. He retired from Patna HC as a judge on April 22, 2020, and from July’ 2020 to July 6, 2023, he also served as the chairman of the Bihar Human Rights Commission.

“The role of top officials sitting in Patna too also should be probed”, demanded Opposition RJD leader and party MP from Buxar Sudhakar Singh and Jan Suraaj Party (JSP) founder Prashant Kishor.