Patna: In the news for a perceptible deterioration in the law and order situation in the state and the shabby state of its institutions and the procedures followed by them, Bihar has another feather to add to its cap.
In an incident that blows holes in the government’s efficacy in ensuring a free and fair processes in elections at its rural institutions, a woman in the state’s Sitamarhi district was elected as panchayat samiti member. The catch here is that she had passed away nine years ago.
According to officials, the woman, identified as Mithlesh Devi, was killed by her husband nine years ago in Sitamarhi. However, in a bizarre turn of events, she was appointed as a panchayat samiti member after the results in the recently concluded 10-phase panchayat elections were declared.
According to documents, Mithlesh Devi was elected as a panchayat samiti member from Tikauli panchayat in Sitamarhi after she filed her nomination papers and contested the panchayat polls.
However, officials pointed out Mithlesh was murdered nine years ago and her husband Sikandar Mukhiya is the main accused in case. Sikandar, too, has been missing and on the run since the incident. This fact, however, only remains on paper, as Sikandar has been apparently given a long rope and is roaming scot free.
Police officials involved in the probe into the case suggest that Sikander may have pulled a fast one by fielding his second wife Gudia Devi in the name of his first wife Mithlesh Devi, who is dead, to contest the panchayat polls.
"Sikandar, who is accused in her murder, put his second wife to contest in the name of Mithlesh to ensure that she poses as his first wife in the court to help him get acquitted in the case," a district police official said.
Sitamarhi District Magistrate Rajeev Roshan has ordered an investigation into this incident.
With IANS Inputs
