Police officers look for clues at LCT Ghat in Patna on Monday. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

Patna, Nov. 14: A middle-aged man, whose excavator was used to dig sand in a diara, was found murdered in the LCT Ghat area under Patliputra police station this morning.

Police said prima facie, the incident occured late last night. The victim, identified as Ram Sahay Yadav, 40, was a resident of Barhi village in Jharkhand’s Hazaribagh district.

Police said the assailant had fired at him from point-blank range and he suffered wounds near his left ear. The police added that he was killed while sleeping on an elevated bamboo platform.

Yadav had reached Patna a couple of days ago and headed straight to the diara site, around 6km from the ghat, where his machine was used to lift sand. The police suspected the murder to be the fallout of some personal enmity.

“We have recovered Rs 16,000 and a cellphone on him. We think he was not killed for gain. The body was covered with a blanket with a cap on the head, suggesting that the man was shot in his sleep,” city central superintendent of police Shivdeep Lande said. Yadav had been overseeing the lifting of sand with his machine.

“Last night, the man ate dinner with the two drivers working under him. The drivers went off to the construction site, half-a-km from the platform on which Yadav slept. The drivers returned early morning and found Yadav asleep. After preparing the breakfast, they went to wake up their employer, but found him dead. Immediately, the duo apprised the police,” the officer said.

The mining and geology department leases out the work of sand excavation along the diara to contractors, who then pass it on to sub-contractors. In turn, the sub-contractors get the work done with the help of JCB machine owners. Yadav was one such JCB machine owner.

“The deceased had a business partner, Brahmadev Yadav, in Supaul district. The police have summoned Brahmadev for interrogation. The two drivers have been detained for questioning. It seems that someone had personal enmity with Yadav and he might have followed him all the way from Hazaribagh and waited for the right opportunity to strike. But nothing can be said for certain, as the police are still investigating the case,” Lande said.

The police also added that it could even be a case of killing by mistake. The body was covered with a blanket which bore the hole of a bullet fired from a country-made firearm.

Brahmadev used to rest on the same platform before he went back to his native village in Supaul for a few days. He could have been the killer’s actual target and not the deceased. There are a few residential huts in the area but nobody heard any bullet shot,” the officer said. He added that a police team will be sent to his Barhi home.