An under-construction building at Bhagalpur. Picture by Amit Kumar

Bhagalpur, Dec. 2: A boom in the realty business, evident from the multi-storeyed buildings and shopping complexes mushrooming across the city over the past few years, has triggered a lot of bloodshed over property-related dealings. But police have hardly been able to make any progress in the murder cases related to such deals.

On September 12 this year, criminals gunned down Ratan Sharma, a property dealer, while returning to his Parvatti locality residence from a doctor’s clinic in Kathalbari. On September 22, Sharma succumbed to his injuries at a private nursing home in Patna during treatment. Police lodged a case against the Tatarpur-based Raj Distributors, a company dealing in consumer products, in connection with the case. More than two months have passed but the police are yet to make any arrest. “Sharma was killed because of a big plot in Parvatti he was dealing in. Earlier, he had a confrontation with influential people who wanted to strike the property deal,” said a close family friend of Sharma on condition of anonymity.

Panic-stricken members of Sharma’s family avoided the media. “Please don’t disturb us. If you mention our names, we would have to face more trouble,” a family member said, on condition of anonymity. The family also alleged police’s failure to identify the goons involved in the incident.

The city has seen several killing episodes related to property disputes and in most of the cases, police have hardly made any progress. “Many such cases are still a mystery for the cops. For whatever reason, police failed to investigate the cases properly,” said a senior-ranking police officer on condition of anonymity.

On December 25, 2004 night, armed criminals raided the Kotwali house of Pawan Kumar Agarwal, a bank employee, and killed Agarwal and serious injured his wife, Manju. The police have failed to zero in on any criminal involved in the incident. The family has already migrated from here and police have closed the case. The victim’s family alleged that Agarwal was killed because of dispute in a property deal.

On September 19, 2006, criminals killed a couple, TNB Collegiate School principal Usha Kiran Pandey and her engineer husband, Bijay Kumar Pandey, inside their Sarai house. Property dispute was suspected to be a cause behind the killing. Police, on the other hand, nabbed a relative of the couple, Raman Choubey, from Delhi. The case still lingers on.

On July 21, 2008, criminals killed Puspa Singh, 35-year-old widow, on Barari Road near Tilka Manjhi Chowk. Nidhi, the daughter of the deceased, lodged a complaint, claiming a property dispute to be the reason for the killing. Three years have passed but the police are yet to identify the criminals.

On April 24, 2009, criminals killed a property dealer, Bishnudev Mandal at Bhravpur village under Habibpur police station on the outskirts of the city.