Patna, March 17: Shops and business establishments in Rohtas, Kaimur, Bhojpur and Buxar districts remained closed today because of a dawn-to-dusk Shahabad bandh called by the CPI-ML (Liberation) in protest against the murder of the party’s Rohtas district secretary, Bhaiya Ram Yadav, in Nasariganj.
Hundreds of party activists, led by district member Ashok Singh, forced the closure of the shops on Station Road in Dehri and paralysed traffic on Dehri-Rajpur road. Traffic on Grand Trunk Road remained paralysed for hours because of blockades on various stretches of the highway.
CPI-ML (Liberation) Dehri unit secretary Azad Hussain said the CPM had extended support to the bandh.
Arun Kumar, a former MLA from Karakat, said the organisation has called a bandh in Nasariganj on March 23 to put pressure on the police to arrest the killers. “Party national general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya would address a rally on the occasion,” he added.
Hussain claimed that the bandh was total in the entire Shahabad range that comprises Kaimur, Rohtas, Bhojpur and Buxar districts. The party workers staged blockades on Ara-Patna road and disrupted traffic for nearly five hours. “People came out to raise their voices against the deteriorating law and order situation in general and Yadav’s murder,” he added.
Rohtas superintendent of police Manu Maharaj on Friday visited the area where Yadav was murdered on Wednesday last and conducted an inquiry.
“We have got some important clues. We hope to solve the case soon,” the SP said, adding that raids were on to arrest the criminals.
Five persons — Ashok Singh alias Ambuj Singh, Babu Singh, Sonu Singh, Manu Singh and Dablu Singh — have been mentioned as named accused in the FIR lodged by Nand Kishore Paswan, a resident of Nasariganj, in connection with the murder. The police have, however, failed to arrest any accused so far.
Maharaj said the officer who is probing into the murder has been instructed to initiate the process of attachment of property of all the accused if they continued to evade arrest.
“We have decided to obtain the order of the court concerned for attachment of the property of the accused’ because they are on the run ever since the murder took place,” he told The Telegraph.