‘I was shot, but the police kept beating me’: Bihar youth recount police brutality in Siwan

On July 25, Bulet Kumar Gond had gone to the district magistrate office in Bihar’s Siwan town to get his caste and residence certificates made.

That day, the All India Students’ Association or AISA had called for a Bihar bandh to protest against a police lathicharge on students in Patna three days ago.

The students in the Bihar capital had been demanding the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, as part of a nationwide agitation called by the satirical outfit Cockroach Janta Party.

In Siwan, hundreds of students had joined the AISA protest, leading to clashes with the police in several areas.

Gond, a 20-year-old from Dumrahar Bujurg village, 40 km from the Siwan district headquarters, ended up getting caught in one.

On the way to the district magistrate office, Gond recalls that the police and the students had faced off against each other. “Bricks and stones were being pelted from the police’s side as well as from the students' side,” he said.

As he saw many others skirt the protest and head for the government office, Gond followed their lead. “No one was getting hurt or harmed there,” he said. “I thought let me pass from the side to do my work.”

But just as he tried to walk past a few vendors,...

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