Two days on, Bihar families wait for protesters’ release

Hundreds of parents on Wednesday waited outside the Beur Central Jail in Patna to take home their children who were arrested in connection with the NEET paper leak protest last week.

The Bihar government on Monday announced to withdraw all cases filed against protesters across the State and assured that no coercive action would be taken against them in future as well.

But more than 48 hours later, only a few of them have been released. Nikhat Jabeen, 40, was one of the parents waiting outside the Beur jail on Saturday.

“Bihar government has given the order to release everyone, but my son Shadan Malik, 20, is still in jail. I have been waiting outside the jail since morning. The last time I met him was on July 25 night at the Rupaspur police station,” Ms. Jabeen told The Hindu.

According to her, at least 18 students, including her son, were picked up that night. “After I met him in the police station, I went home and cooked food for all 18 students and came back to feed them. I was awake the entire night. On July 26, around 3 a.m, they sent my child to Beur jail. He told me the police even beat some of the students in the van when they were picked up from the Gandhi Maidan area on the day of the protest,” she said.

Prince Kumar, a resident of Begusarai, said the police have not given any information about releasing his younger brother Piyush Kumar. “The buzz is that by late night everyone would be released,” he added.

A police source said around 25 people have been released so far, including Patna University Students’ Union president Shantanu Shekhar, who said the police behaved nicely. He also demanded that all students should be released at the earliest. The source said the release was delayed due to paperwork and getting the release order from the local court. In Patna alone, the police had booked 144 protesters.