Different role: IPS officers 'expose' false threat of evil spirits

PATNA: How would you relate an IPS officer with exorcism? Surprised! You may be. But not the two Bihar cadre IPS officers who virtually acted like e xorcists to ward off old belief doing rounds in police circles of Bihar's Muzaffarpur and Munger districts regarding presence of evil spirits.

One among them is 1996 batch IPS officer Sudhanshu Kumar, currently holding the post of Muzaffarpur SP and the other one is Shalin, a 2001 batch officer, who at present is Munger SP.

In case of the former, the challenge was to open a room of Meenapur police station which remained locked for over 62 years on the pretext that the ghost of a British police officer, M L Warler, was there.Warler was burnt alive by freedom fighter Jubba Sahni and his supporters inside his chamber way back in 1946 after he ordered firing on a procession in which one local, Bangar Sahni, was killed.

Since then the chamber has been kept locked and officials posted there worked from a different room. The belief about presence of Warler's spirit got strengthened as officers who tried to open the room in the past, got transferred for one reason or the other. "I wanted to weed out this false belief as Meenapur police station is located in Naxalite-affected area and we could not afford to keep officials posted there to live under false threat of an evil spirit," Kumar told TOI.

He said that he assured the station house officer (SHO) of Meenapur police station Mohammed Islam that he would not be transferred at any cost and this gave the officer courage not only to open the room, but also use it as his chamber.The SP's assurance appears to have done wonders to the confidence of the present SHO as he is doing quite well even after two months of opening this so called ill-fated chamber.

"I have not faced any problems," Islam said. Some predecessors, however, are keeping their fingers crossed. "It is too early to comment and the SHO would feel the heat of Warler's spirit sooner than later," said one of them.

In Muzaffarpur, the problem was related to a particular police station, whereas in Munger, the place in question was the official residence of the SP itself. And those vouching for it are past incumbents. Patna rail SP D N Gupta, who was posted as Munger SP in 1999 is one among them.
Gupta said that he got one of the locked rooms of his official residence opened after which he saw a woman ghost who used to attack him and his kin. "I used to become unconscious for 48 hours after every encounter with the ghost," Gupta added. Shalin, who has been Munger SP for the last 15 months denies such things.

"It may be a figment of someone's imagination as I never came across any such thing even though I got that locked room opened," he said and added that his act would help curb false beliefs like presence of evil spirit in the residence.