Pritam Bhattacharjee

Patna, July 19: The murder of 172 people in the past 15 years in Bhawanipur village, where Assam student Pritam Bhattacharjee’s body was found, has flummoxed the police.

The village, barely 300m from Katira station where the 25-year-old’s body was found with his throat slit, is the home of gangster Moti Yadav.

A police team, led by inspector-general (rail) Vinay Kumar, that visted Bhawanipur was shocked to know that the village had witnessed such a huge number of killings. “Gang rivalry is an open secret in the area. The decade-old rivalry has claimed more than 172 lives at Bhawanipur alone,” said Vinay. The startling fact came to light during investigation of Pritam’s mysterious murder case. “The entire area is known as crime-prone region. Till a few years ago, kidnappings and murders in Naugachia police district had become the order of the day. However, as such, no professional gang of kidnappers exists there today,” said inspector-general (Bhagalpur zone) A.K. Ambedkar.

The gangs led by underworld dons like Ramanand Yadav, Jahid Khan and Awadhesh Mandal had virtually established a reign of terror in the area. Khan was involved in the murder of a former deputy superintendent of police, Satpal Singh, who was killed during an encounter in adjoining Saharsa district on December 8, 1998. The IG (rail) said though there were several gangs of luggage lifters active in the region, such an incident in which a youth was killed after his bag was snatched in the train had been reported for the first time.

“This is a case of a different kind. I have not seen such an incident in my whole career as a police officer,” revealed Katihar superintendent of rail police Sukhan Paswan. He added that he would leave no stone unturned to unravel the mystery behind the murder.

The SRP said some members of luggage-lifting gangs, including Md Rahman, Md Afroz and Md Shadiq, were arrested a month ago and the stolen goods seized. “The gangs have their network across the state’s border,” he added.