On Wednesday, a massive mahapanchayat convened at Bilouti village, where the state government was served a 15-day ultimatum to fix accountability in the case.A judicial commission on Thursday began its inquiry into last week’s encounter in Bhojpur that led to the death of 28-year-old Bharat Bhushan Tiwari.Retired Patna High Court judge Justice Vinod Kumar Sinha, who is leading the probe, met with Tiwari’s parents at their home in Bilouti village, under the jurisdiction of the Shahpur police station in Bhojpur.Tiwari, whose family described him as a social activist, was shot by police on the morning of June 17 and succumbed to his injuries at a Patna hospital later that evening. The incident sparked immediate outrage, putting scrutiny on police’s claims regarding the encounter. The state government subsequently ordered a judicial probe and Bhojpur police have already booked a Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO) and a Station House Officer (SHO) under murder charges, and suspended five policemen for alleged dereliction of duty.On Wednesday, a massive mahapanchayat convened at Bilouti village, where the state government was served a 15-day ultimatum to fix accountability in the case.On the start of the judicial commission’s investigation, a member of the family told The Indian Express that the retired judge met Tiwari’s father, Kashinath Tiwari, and mother, Asha Devi, to record their statements.Mother’s testimony“In her testimony, the mother reiterated the family’s harrowing account, saying that Bharat had completely agreed to go with police after throwing down his weapon. She alleged that police personnel grabbed him, threw him into a pit, and shot him five times under direct orders from the SDPO at the scene,” the family member said.Following the interview, Justice Sinha and his team inspected the spot where the shooting occurred to evaluate the physical and spatial context of the incident.Story continues below this adAnother member of Tiwari’s family expressed reservations about the investigation, saying, “It is good that the judicial probe has started, but we have not yet been informed about the commission’s terms of reference or the scope of its investigation. We simply want to know on whose orders bullets were fired at an unarmed person. Will the commission look into the role of DGP Vinay Kumar and the STF?”‘Murder’: Ex-DGPMeanwhile, former Bihar DGP Abhayanand strongly criticised the police action. “It was not an encounter, but a murder. Culpability rests with the policemen who fired and those who ordered the firing. The Bhojpur incident reflects very poorly on policing and the state administration as a whole. Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary should have also refrained from making statements that amounted to giving a free hand to the police,” he said.A retired IPS officer said there were several lapses in the handling of the case. “Policemen opened fire post-surrender. This is supported by a Facebook Live video that reportedly shows Tiwari throwing away his pistol, heavily contradicting the official police claim of self-defence. Second, despite the police officially declaring Tiwari ‘mentally unstable’ just a day earlier, officers failed to deploy crisis negotiators or standard de-escalation tactics. Third, confronting the suspect in an open field, police bypassed non-lethal alternatives or shooting to incapacitate, directly resorting to fatal gunfire. Fourth, the operation completely lacked immediate transparency and failed to adhere to mandatory independent oversight protocols laid down by the Supreme Court. Fifth, following the incident, police allegedly detained Tiwari’s father for a day and withheld information from the family, before ultimately being forced to lodge a murder case against two senior officials based on the aggrieved family’s formal complaint.”Tiwari’s deathOn June 17, Tiwari, who was known to take up local issues, was killed in a police encounter after a two-day standoff that was live-streamed to his 1.6 lakh Facebook subscribers.Story continues below this adPolice maintain that Tiwari was armed and “mentally unsound”, leading them to shoot him in self-defence after attempts to bring him in peacefully failed. But the Tiwari family and village residents have alleged he was shot after agreeing to surrender, citing the Facebook Live video that purportedly shows him throwing down his gun. They also described him as a social worker, claiming his criticism of delays in rehabilitating last year’s Bhojpur flood victims had pitted him against local officials.Santosh Singh is a Senior Assistant Editor with The Indian Express since June 2008. Expertise He covers Bihar with main focus on politics, society and governance. Investigative and explanatory stories are also his forte. Singh has 25 years of experience in print journalism covering Bihar, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka. ... Read More Tags:killedmurder