Patna, March 13: The list of unsolved murders in the state capital keeps on growing longer and longer while the men-in-uniform have failed to crack the cases or nab the culprits.
Almost a month has passed since unknown assailants bludgeoned retired All India Radio employee Sitaram Yadav to death with a hammer and decamped with cash and valuables from his Kumhrar residence, but the police are still clueless about the sensational case. The incident took place in the small hours of February 15.
On November 9 last year, a car trailed deputy superintendent of police (traffic)-II Shashi Bhushan Sharma’s vehicle before its occupants shot at him right in front of his residence. The case that saw questions being raised about the police is still under investigation with no breakthrough even after four months.
The sensational murder case of Santosh Tekriwal, the owner of Azad Transport Agency, on July 10, 2009 is yet to see any breakthrough. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is at present investigating the case. Following demand by the Opposition, the case had been handed over to the central investigating agency.
Police sources told The Telegraph that the Yadav murder case still remains a mystery. “The case is complicated. First, the police were under the impression that it was a murder for gain but it does not look the same anymore. Yadav’s body was found outside the house, which is mysterious. The police suspect that he was not killed in the house. Neither were much bloodstains found in the room where Yadav was sleeping nor was the murder weapon, the hammer. The police are investigating the case but things seem complicated,” a police officer said.
Sources said that the police wanted to use a lie detector test on Yadav’s wife, Shakuntala Devi, who was in the house when the crime took place.
The woman, who was sleeping in a different room, heard a soft sound of the door latch being locked from outside.
After that she claimed not to have heard anything till the next morning when she tried opening the door of the room and found it locked from outside. The driver of the family reported for duty around 10am and opened the latch.
“If Yadav was killed in the room, he must have screamed in agony. There must have been a scuffle. How can it be that she could not hear anything? The police wanted to conduct a lie detector test on her,” a police source added.
With Yadav’s eldest son, Shashi Bhushan Saurabh, being the JD(U) national treasurer, senior politicians like Sharad Yadav and Lalu Prasad visited the family a day after the murder.
The police also consider the shooting of DSP (Traffic) Shashi Bhushan Sharma a mystery till now.
The officer had alighted from his vehicle and was about to open the gate of his house when unknown men shot at him from a close range and fled. Fortunately, the bullets did not hit at vital spots. But the officer had to spend almost a month in New Delhi for treatment that included plastic surgeries. The case was being investigated by the then deputy superintendent of police (Town) Sheela Irani who was transferred to Bhagalpur last month.
At present, the case is with the present DSP (Town) Ramakant Prasad. A police source said that investigation on the case was still on and there has been no breakthrough till now.
Moreover, the CBI has not revealed any breakthrough in the murder of Tekriwal, who was gunned down by motorcycle-borne criminals in Rajendra Nagar locality under Kadamkuan police station in Patna.
