Vaishali: Police encounters in India frequently trigger controversy, legal scrutiny and fierce public debate over the legitimacy of lethal force. Yet in an unusual twist, the father of a man killed in a police encounter in Bihar’s Vaishali district has publicly defended the operation, calling it justified and praising the police for their actions.
Prince Kumar, an alleged criminal with a long history of serious charges, was killed in a gunfight with Vaishali police on Friday during an attempted arrest. Speaking to reporters at Sadar Hospital, where Prince’s postmortem was conducted late at night, his father, Nand Kishore Singh, said the police had acted correctly and deserved thanks for the encounter.
“Whatever the police did was not wrong. I had always been telling the police to kill him in an encounter. He had nothing to do with the family,” Nand Kishore said, adding that the police had done “100% the right thing” by eliminating his son.
According to him, Prince had entered the criminal world during his student years and later became what he described as a “professional criminal”. Police records indicate that Prince, a resident of Husaina Khurd village under Goraul police station, faced more than 31 cases, including murder, robbery and violations of the Arms Act. Authorities have also alleged his involvement in the theft of nearly 300 kilograms of gold.
Police said they had tracked Prince through intelligence inputs and attempted to arrest him when he opened fire on the team, prompting retaliatory firing that led to his death. Prince was reportedly a key associate of gold robbery gang leader Subodh Singh, with the gang linked to a series of high-profile gold heists across India, including major robberies in Asansol, Hajipur, Udaipur, Katni and Dehradun between 2017 and 2023. The government had announced a reward of Rs 200,000 for information leading to his capture.
The encounter has once again raised questions about the use of deadly force by police, but the extraordinary reaction of Prince’s father highlights the complex social and moral dimensions surrounding crime, law enforcement and justice in India.
