Patna: Villagers from Tikauli Panchayat in Sitamarhi District have elected a dead woman  to the post of Panchayat Samiti member. The woman, Mithlesh Devi, has been dead nine long years. Bihar never fails to spring surprises!

A woman in Bihar, who died several years ago, was elected as a panchayat samiti member in the recently concluded 10-phase panchayat elections, officials said on Friday.

Sikandar Mukhiya ,is the husband of this ‘ghost’, Mithlesh Devi,  actually accused of her murder  nine years ago, and is still ‘absconding’.

According to documents, Mithlesh Devi was elected panchayat samiti member from Tikauli panchayat in Sitamarhi after she filed her nomination papers and contested the panchayat polls.

One really can’t say how the nomination papers were verified, but the facts are that after this woman was actually declared elected, that  officials have claimed that Mithlesh was murdered nine years ago and her husband Sikandar Mukhiya is the main accused in the case.

Sikandar, too, has been missing and on the run since the incident — at least on paper.

Sikandar, who is roaming free, played a trick by fielding his second wife Gudia Devi in the name of his first wife Mithlesh Devi. “Sikandar, who is accused in her murder, had his second wife contest in the name of Mithlesh in the hope that he will be acquitted in the case,” a district police official said.

A media report says that Sitamarhi District Magistrate Rajeev Roshan has ordered an investigation.

The case is a curious one. Who is this Sikandar Mukhiya and how can he be so bold? The police ave failed to arrest this one man throughout nine years of CM Nitish Kumar’s ‘su-shashan’ (good governance). What sort of clout does this man have so that a sizeable number of villagers voted for the ‘dead woman’ despite knowing that the real candidate was actually his second wife?

More interesting will be to see whether the chaps who were responsible for conducting this panchayat election at Tikauli will be brought to book. What about those who aided and abetted this fraud?

  Bihar, crime, elections, naked ambition, Panchayat elections, Sitamarhi, Tikauli Panchayat