A Gopalganj police team conducted raids in Patna on Thursday in search of two sharpshooters of an inter-state gang allegedly involved in the daylight murder of Tripurari Sharan Sharma, a practising lawyer, on August 30.
The team conducted searches in areas falling under the jurisdiction of Rupaspur and Danapur police stations in West Patna to apprehend Jai Prakash Singh and Dhodha Mian, close associates of a notorious criminal, Shakti Singh. Property dispute turned out to be the reason behind the murder.
Both the shooters are evading arrest ever since the incident took place. "A police team has been sent outside the district to nab the assailants," Gopalganj superintendent of police (SP) Natasha Gudia told The Telegraph on Thursday.
She said the kingpin of the gang, Shakti Singh, who allegedly hatched the conspiracy to kill the lawyer, has been arrested and forwarded to judicial custody. The SP claimed that the conspiracy for the murder was hatched in Motihari central jail, where Shatki was earlier lodged.
The searches in Patna, however, didn't pay any result. A police team member said the team would camp in the capital for a couple of days and keep surveillance.
The police's failure to arrest the shooters sparked off public protest in Gopalganj. The lawyers accompanied by a group of residents blocked national highway-85 and disrupted traffic for over three hours.
The road blockade was later removed after the intervention of senior police and administrative officials. The protesters also demanded immediate transfer of the station house officer of Gopalganj town police station.
A practising lawyer of Gopalganj civil court, Manoj Kumar Sharma, said, "Had the police taken initiatives and provided him security, the tragedy could have been averted. The deceased (Sharma) had approached the local police for protection a week before the incident but in vain."
The members of the district bar association and other related organisations also petitioned to the district magistrate, demanding compensation of Rs 25 lakh and adequate security to the deceased's family. Sanjay Kumar Gupta, a lawyer, said: "The legal fraternity of the town is up in arms against the rising incidents of attack on the members."
