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Real victim: One of Rahul Raj Singh's bullets pierced Manoj Bhagat's left thigh, completely shattering the bone. PIC/SANDEEP MAHANKAL

The death of Rahul Raj Singh has been turned into a political issue by the Bihar government. That's what the police in Mumbai are saying.

They say Singh almost killed a passenger on that BEST bus and could've done more harm had the police not shot him dead. But his body was flown to Patna by the Bihar government as if he were the victim.

"What would have happened if a policeman had died in the encounter? None of them would have done anything," said a top police official.

Clubbing Singh's death with that of Pawan Kumar, a Bihari who allegedly died while fleeing MNS riots, politicians, cops say, are milking the incidents.

Pawan had come to Mumbai to appear for the Railway Recruitment Board exams. But while he was running away from the riots on October 21, he allegedly came under a train at Andheri. Even though the railways have declared that Pawan did not die while trying to escape the wrath of the rioters, his body too was flown home by the Bihar government.

Nothing wrong

However, politicians in Maharashtra do not feel there is anything wrong about the bodies, especially Singh's, being flown back. "There is a definitely a politicisation of the whole issue. But I don't see anything wrong in the state flying back a dead citizen. It's the state's duty to take care of its citizens," said Sanjay Raut, editor of Shiv Sena's Saamna.

Congress's Sanjay Nirupam agreed with Raut. "The state has a duty to take responsibility towards its citizens and there's nothing wrong in taking the body of its citizen by air. The state government is behaving in a sensitive manner like any other government would do."

But Nitin Sardesai, spokesperson of the MNS, disagreed saying, "We have heard of policemen and Army men being flown back to their state, but not a person like Singh. But what happened to the boy [Singh] is very sad."

North Indian killed

The police have picked up two persons for allegedly beating to death Dharamdev Ramnarayan Roy (25), a resident of Gariyaghat in eastern Uttar Pradesh, near Khopoli in a Mumbai-bound train from Karjat yesterday. It was not clear what led to the squabble, police said.