16 allegedly poisoned to death by rivals

By Our Staff Correspondent

PATNA, AUG. 7. At least 16 members of a criminal gang were allegedly poisoned to death by a rival gang in Pachbighi village of Gogri police station limits in Khagaria district last night.

According to the Home Secretary, Mr. U. N. Panjiar, the local don, Sohendra Sharma, invited his rival, Kundan Yadav, who ruled the roost in Naugachia, to a feast where the latter and his entire gang were wiped out by poisoning. The apparent motive was also to acquire the sophisticated arms the Kundan Yadav gang possessed.

The two gangs have been at loggerheads in the region, their clashes taking a heavy toll of lives till recently. Later the two were said to have buried the hatchet, leading to the dinner that Sharma threw for Kundan Yadav and his associates, ostensibly to finalise an arms deal.

Details about the incident are awaited at the Home Department. The divisional Magistrate and the Superintendent of Police are yet to return from the place of occurrence, made more inaccessible by the rivers in spate. Officials were not sure about the actual number of people who had been massacred, nor the number of bodies that had been recovered so far. It was believed that the bodies were disposed off in the Ganga river.

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