The shocking murder of schoolboy Aditya Sachdev, allegedly by a ruling JD(U) legislator’s son and aided by his police bodyguard, once again puts the spotlight on Bihar’s lawlessness. It also raises serious questions about chief minister Nitish Kumar’s governance and his control over rogue elements in his own party.

The big fear when Nitish was re-elected last year was how the chief minister, who had campaigned on a good governance platform, would handle muscle flexing power brokers of new ally Lalu Prasad’s RJD. This time though, he can’t blame RJD and must look within at the seamy underbelly of his own party. This is a classic case of abuse of power that exemplifies everything that is wrong with our VIP culture of power. Nothing short of exemplary justice will do and the chief minister must deliver a stern message to his party. The incident defies belief. Rocky, the 30-year-old son of Gaya MLC Manorama Devi, is alleged to have shot Aditya on the Bodhgaya-Gaya road after his Land Rover was apparently not allowed to overtake Aditya’s car. Rocky’s bodyguard and two others in the car have also been named in the FIR. Though Patna zone IG Naiyyar Hasnain Khan says no stone will be left unturned in bringing Rocky to justice, even two days after the incident the law did not catch up with him.

The state government has formed a special investigating team to solve the case but the involvement of local politicians has made it symptomatic of a larger culture of political impunity in Bihar. Rocky’s father and the MLC’s husband, Bindi Yadav, also a JD(U) leader, is under arrest for helping his son get away. That this shooting could have happened despite the presence of police bodyguards – indeed, allegedly facilitated by one of them – also raises serious question marks about the professionalism and loyalties of the state police force.

The chief minister made his initial reputation in his first tenure in Patna by driving out the jungle raj days of Lalu Prasad. He must clamp down hard and reiterate that Bihar is not once again turning into a banana republic. Already the state BJP is claiming that goonda raj and jungle raj have returned to Bihar. The onus is on Nitish to disprove the charge.