Jamui Case: Police Did Their Job, Now the System Must Finish It
What happened near Madwa Pahar in Bihar’s Jamui district on September 19 should disturb anyone who watches the footage. Two Class 10 students, a minor boy and a minor girl, had gone towards the area after their coaching class to take photographs. What should have been an ordinary evening for two schoolchildren turned into a nightmare when a group stopped them and surrounded them on their way back.
The video leaves little ambiguity about the humiliation and violence inflicted upon the children. The boy was assaulted while repeatedly pleading with the group to allow them to leave. The girl was molested, grabbed and harassed as several people surrounded the pair. Instead of intervening to protect two frightened children, someone recorded what was happening. Police later said around seven people involved in the physical incident had been identified from the footage.
There is another uncomfortable part of this story. Jamui Superintendent of Police Bishwajeet Dayal said the children had not approached police after the incident. Police came to know about it after the video went viral and traced the victims using the registration number of the vehicle visible in the footage. That leaves Bihar with a question it cannot ignore: if there had been no video, and if that video had never reached social media, would this crime ever have entered the criminal justice system?
Bihar Police Deserve Credit for What Happened Next
That question must be asked, but fairness also requires acknowledging what Bihar Police did once the incident came to their attention. An SIT was constituted, the footage was analysed, suspects were identified and police teams began going after them. Three juveniles were initially detained, and the subsequent operation led to the capture of principal accused Nandan Yadav and another accused, taking the reported number apprehended among the seven identified suspects to five. The search for the remaining suspects was continuing as of September 22.
Police forces are rightly criticised when they are slow, indifferent or fail victims. The same standard of fairness means they should receive credit when they move quickly. The response after the Jamui footage surfaced has been swift, and the officers pursuing those identified in the video deserve acknowledgement for that urgency.
The job is not completely finished while suspects remain outside custody. Every person who participated in surrounding, assaulting, molesting, intimidating or otherwise targeting these children must be identified according to the evidence and brought before the law.
Nandan Yadav Tried to Get Away. Police Did Not Let Him
The arrest of Nandan Yadav has understandably attracted the most attention. Police say he attempted to escape during the operation and suffered a bullet injury to his leg before being taken into custody. Another accused was also apprehended during the operation.
The point here should not be misunderstood. Nobody needs to celebrate somebody being shot. What deserves recognition is that police were pursuing the principal accused in a serious case involving two minors and did not allow him to simply escape. If proportionate and lawful force became necessary to stop that escape, then credit belongs to the officers for ensuring that the operation ended with the accused in custody rather than disappearing beyond their reach.
That distinction matters. Justice comes through investigation, prosecution and the courts, not through a police bullet. The significance of the Jamui operation is that Nandan Yadav survived, was arrested and can now face the legal process.
Arrests Are Only the Beginning
This is where the second and more difficult stage begins. Viral outrage can produce enormous pressure for immediate action, but justice depends on what happens after public attention begins moving elsewhere. Evidence has to be preserved properly, individual roles must be established, the remaining suspects have to be apprehended, the investigation must be completed thoroughly and prosecutors need a case capable of standing up in court.
The two children also deserve privacy and protection throughout that process. Bihar Police have specifically warned people against circulating the video or revealing the identities of the minors and have taken action against social-media accounts accused of spreading identifying material. The country does not need to repeatedly watch the humiliation of these children to demand justice for them.
The Viral Video Question Still Haunts This Case
The efficiency shown after the video surfaced cannot erase the larger lesson. A functioning law-and-order system cannot depend upon every crime being recorded, uploaded and made viral before authorities learn about it.
There will always be frightened victims who hesitate to approach the police. There will be children afraid of their families, social stigma or retaliation. There will also be crimes committed in isolated places where no camera records what happened. The challenge for Bihar is therefore larger than solving this particular case. It is to create enough confidence in the system that victims believe approaching the police will protect them rather than create another ordeal.
The Juvenile Involvement Should Disturb Society
The reported involvement of three juveniles makes the episode even harder to dismiss as simply the behaviour of a few adult criminals. It raises uncomfortable questions about attitudes developing among young people towards girls, violence, humiliation and group behaviour.
A society has a problem when humiliation becomes entertainment, when someone reaches for a phone instead of intervening, and when young people begin believing that surrounding and terrorising two classmates is acceptable behaviour. Police can arrest individuals after such an incident. Families, schools and communities have the harder responsibility of ensuring that this mentality is confronted before another Jamui occurs.
Samrat Choudhary Must Keep Jamui on the Agenda
The responsibility now extends beyond Jamui Police. Samrat Choudhary is Bihar’s Chief Minister and also holds the Home Department, which oversees police administration, law and order, crime control and prosecution. That places the progress of cases such as Jamui squarely within the responsibilities of the state government.
The police response has created momentum. What matters now is that the investigation and prosecution do not lose that momentum after national attention fades. The remaining accused must be pursued, the children protected and the case allowed to proceed without avoidable administrative delay or outside interference.
Bihar Police have shown urgency at the first critical stage. They identified suspects, went after them and ensured that the principal accused was brought into custody. The larger criminal justice system must now match that urgency. Jamui has the attention of the country today. The real measure of the response will be whether the same determination remains when the viral video has disappeared from social-media timelines.
