Patna, June 19: Acting on the directive of the Bihar State Human Rights Commission (BSHRC), police have initiated a fresh probe into the murder of a proprietor of a Patna City-based public school. Fatuha circle inspector Kamla Pati Singh has been assigned to investigate the case.

The mutilated body of the school proprietor, Philip E. Thomas, was recovered from Daniawan police station area in Patna rural on November 16, 2005. The wife of the deceased, Mersi, suddenly disappeared from Patna City in 2007 after the case was closed in “want of evidence”.

The BSHRC directed the police to conduct a fresh probe into the murder after receiving a complaint petition from a Patna City resident Shami Kapoor alleging that the case was closed under pressure. The state police headquarters is learnt to have issued a fresh directive to check the status of the case (No. 51/2005) lodged with the Daniawan police station.

The new investigating officer, perhaps the fourth in the past one-and-a-half years, visited the school at Hajiganj, talked to the witnesses and recorded their statements. The police officer also questioned the employees of the school, now christened as Arora International School, to get substantial clue in the mysterious murder of Thomas, a native of Kerala.

“We are trying to trace the vehicle used to carry Thomas to Daniawan from Patna Junction, where he had alighted from Ernakulam Express on November 15, 2005,” Singh said.

The victim’s wife had lodged a missing case with Khajekalan police station after Thomas did not reach his Patna City residence on November 16. Sources said the case was reopened in 2010. Then deputy inspector-general (central range) Jitendra Kumar detected serious lapses on the part of the investigating officers in the course of his supervision. He conducted a thorough investigation and submitted a detailed report to the director-general of police in February 2010. In his report, he had asked the investigating officer to ascertain the role of Mersi and Sibu, a teacher of the same school. Sibu, who belonged to the native village of Thomas, was considered close to his wife.