PURNIA: Bihar's ruling JD-U MLA Bima Bharati, who was severely beaten up by her spouse on Tuesday and Wednesday, has been shifted from the Purnia sadar hospital to Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) for treatment.
Purnia civil surgeon Dr Ram Charit Mandal on Thursday said an X-ray done on the Rupauli MLA revealed severe inside injuries as well as blood clots in the brain. "Since her condition was serious, we referred her to PMCH," he said, reports Times of India.
The three-time legislator's husband Awadhesh Mandal, against whom at least 30 cases of serious offences like murder and kidnap are pending, has been forwarded to jail. He along with his driver Dinesh Mahto was ar-rested from the couple's village home at Bihta in Purnia district after the MLA gave a distress call to SP NH Khan.
Mandal and Bharti, married for about 20 years, have two sons and a daughter. "The couple's relations soured of late and battering wife became a favourite pastime for Mandal," a senior police official said and attributed the frequent incidents of domestic violence to the heartburn caused to Mandal by wife's steady rise in politics.
While Mandal unsuccessfully contested the 1995 assembly elections from Rupauli as an Independent, Bharti has been representing the con-stituency in the legislature since 2000, almost continuously. She initially won as an Independent and joined RJD. On the eve of 2010 polls, she switched her allegiance to ruling JD-U.
Police said Mandal on Tuesday battered Bharti at her MLA Flats in Patna where she had gone to take oath as an MLA. While returning to Bi-hta the same day, she was forced to leave her car near Kursela and "kidnapped" by her husband in his SUV. All through the night, she was tortured and beaten up, cops quoted the diminutive MLA as having told them.
Mandal, who is a member of Purnia Zila Parishad, has been booked under the Violence Against Women Act and various IPC Sections, includ-ing 307 that pertains to attempt to murder. Besides Mandal and driver Mahto, eight others --- Niro Mandal, Amar Mandal, Mithilesh Mandal, Jogi Mandal, Bhujangi Mandal, Mahabir Mandal, Mandal's bodyguard Brajesh Rai and another driver Madhusudan Mandal --- have been named as accused in the FIR. The eight accused are absconding.
A terror in the inhospitable terrains of Rupauli-Bhawanipore area on the junction of Katihar, Madhepura and Naugachhia districts, Mandal is the founder of dreaded Faizan gang. The gang members gruesomely chopped off the heads of their opponents in the past, police said.
The rivalry between Faizan gang and North Liberation Army of another criminal Shankar Singh led to several incidents of gory violence in the area. "We shudder at the mention of their names," said a Bhawanipore local.
There was, however, a brief respite when the arch rivals tried their hands in politics. Shankar as an LJP candidate defeated Bharti in February 2005 assembly polls. Bharti, however, avenged the defeat by winning the next assembly election in November the same year.
