Patna, April 16: Eight members of a family, including a teenaged girl and her parents, were arrested in Rohtas for their alleged involvement in the murder of a 20-year-old youth, whose body was recovered from a canal on April 10.
A team from Indrapuri police station in Rohtas district swooped down on the house of one Sudama Prasad at Nawadih village last night and arrested the eight persons, including Sudama, his wife, Shanti Devi, and their 18-year-old daughter Vinita Kumari, for allegedly being involved in the murder of Dheeraj Kumar. The others arrested have been identified as Jagannath Prajapati (Sudama's father), his wife, Indrashan Devi, Anirudh, his wife, Malti Devi, and Sonam.
The body of Dheeraj, who worked with a private firm in Delhi, was found stuffed in a gunny bag near a canal at Durgapur, around 180km south of Patna and 10km from the Dehri sub-division headquarters. The victim's kin alleged that Dheeraj was killed by the family members of Vinita, who had an affair with him.
The arrested persons were today produced before the sub-divisional court at Dehri-on-Sone. They were remanded in judicial custody for two weeks.
"One of the accused, identified as Abhimanyu, is still at large," said Indrapuri police station house officer (SHO) Shashi Bhushan.
The SHO said the deceased's father, Manoj Kumar, had told the investigating officials that his son had come to Nawadih from Delhi only a few days ago. "He was summoned by the girl's family members on the night of April 9 and subsequently killed," the SHO quoted Manoj as saying.
"Prima facie the allegations against the accused were found to be true. The girl admitted she had an affair with the youth for the past two years and visited his home whenever he came from Delhi. The role of Sonam, a student of a college in Sasaram, is being verified," the SHO said.
During investigation, it came to the fore that the youth, of late, had developed close relationship with Sonam, said to be the niece of Sudama. "The family of Sudama decided to settle scores with the deceased apparently after he attempted to lure Sonam," an investigating officer said.
