Patna, Feb. 16: Jai Prakash Singh took refuge in silence when he was asked his age. After a while, he said in a low voice: “Why ask my age? My youngest son, whom we loved so much, died at the age of 32. He was murdered mercilessly. That is important.”

Singh is the father of Ashish Kumar, a businessman and resident of Chailitand area of Maharajganj under Alamganj police station. Ashish left his home around 2.30pm on Monday. A patrolling party of Rajgir police station recovered his body on Tuesday in Biharsharif, 60km off the state capital.

The two-storeyed tenement of the deceased businessman is now swathed is an uncanny silence. “My son was a good family man. We have been distributors of incense sticks for several years. I am retired; my sons look after the business,” Singh told The Telegraph.

The grieving father also recalled: “Ashish was not working that day (Monday) and did not go out of home in the morning hours. Around 2.30pm, he got a call and left. He did not say who the caller was. After that we did not see him alive again.”

Ashish’s wife Sonali did not respond to any question. She sat as still as a stone. “Don’t talk to her please,” said Singh. He also said: “Ashish used to come home by 8.30pm on most days. When he did not return on Monday, we started to call him. But his phone was switched off. We waited till 10.30pm. But neither did he return, nor was his phone switched on. Then, accompanied by some youths of our neighbourhood, we started to search for Ashish. We looked everywhere and also went to Patna Medical College and Hospital to check if he had met with an accident. We checked each and every bed in the emergency ward. But we did not find him.

“We also went to the homes of his friends and business associates. Around 12noon on Tuesday, we lodged a missing diary at Alamganj police station. Around 5pm, a police officer told us we would have to go to Nalanda immediately. I think he knew that my son was dead but no one told us anything. We went to Madraha in Nalanda but returned empty-handed.”

Singh said: “The next day was so long. All the women at home were weeping and I did not know how to calm them. Around 5pm on Wednesday, an officer of Alamganj police station informed us that they had some information from Bihar Sharif in Nalanda. We reached Rajgir police station around 7.30pm. There, the cops first showed me a jacket, a pair of shoes and jeans. I immediately recognised them. By then, I knew that my son was dead. The cops then took us to a field nearby. There was no electricity. The cops started to dig the ground in the light of a few lanterns.”

After digging for 10 minutes, the family saw Ashish’s lifeless body. “His gold chain was stolen. We had nothing left to do. Another car was hired and around 1.30am we brought back his body to our home,” Singh said before becoming silent like his daughter-in-law, other family members and the house.