Chhapra, July 25: Five days have passed since the July 20 firing at the house of RJD MP Umashankar Singh but Saran police are still in the dark. Three persons were killed in the daylight attack.

This incident has caught Saran police on the backfoot and sent down shivers down the spine of the people of the district. Chhapra residents are afraid that the district is going the Siwan way, where day-to-day killings were a regular affair even few years ago.

The Saran police have replaced the Chhapra Town police inspector Arun Kumar Tiwary. Tiwary allegedly did not believe Ghanshyam Singh, the co-sharer of the house of Umashankar, when he went to the police station and told them that a criminal had entered the house of the MP with an AK-47. Precious time was lost and the criminals fled after carrying out the shooting spree.

The people of the town welcomed Tiwari’s transfer but many people believed that the act was merely an eyewash.

The incident had occurred around 3pm on Wednesday. The police had sealed the district and instructions were issued to seal the district borders. The superintendent of police of Saran, A.K. Satyarthi, ordered for the checking of vehicles but nothing was found.

Saran range deputy inspector-general of police Sunil Kumar ruled out any political involvement in the attack. “This (attack) is the outcome of a long feud between two groups hailing from the same panchayat area under Garkha block. Even in the past, people from both sides were killed.”

The DIG, however, claimed that the investigations were on in the right direction and the criminals would be nabbed soon.