Residents protest against the murder in Siwan on Monday. Picture by Rakesh Kumar Singh

Patna, Nov. 24: Violent protests and road blockades virtually brought Siwan to a standstill on Monday, a day after Srikant Bharatiya — a businessman and media in-charge of BJP MP from Siwan Omprakash Yadav — was shot dead by motorcycle- borne criminals.

As the news of late-night murder of Bharatiya spread after dawn, a number of residents came out on the streets and indulged in vandalism and arson. They put up road blockades at different points and paralysed traffic near Sadar Chowk. At some places they had an altercation with police.

Bharatiya was the second businessman to have been murdered in the town within six months. The traders of the town observed bandh on Monday in protest against the murder. They alleged that criminal activities had shot up alarmingly in the past six months. Earlier, businessman Rajiv Roshan was killed in June while he was on way to his shop after collecting money.

Panic has gripped the residents following the murder of Bharatiya, who had distanced himself from incarcerated former RJD MP Mohammad Shahabuddin and joined the BJP. The incident reminded residents of the Lalu-Rabri era, when most of the people preferred to remain indoors after sunset.

The Siwan town, around 145 km northwest of Patna, has been turned into a fortress in the wake of tension prevailing there. Additional armed police forces from neighbouring East Champaran, Saran and Gopalganj districts have been deployed. In addition, personnel of the Special Task Force and Bihar Military Police have been pressed into service to bring the situation under control.

The state police headquarters has directed the inspector-general (Tirhut zone) Parasnath to camp at Siwan till the situation became normal.

Bharatiya (47) was murdered around 10.30pm on Sunday when he was returning home with his friend Manoj Turha after attending a marriage ceremony. The assailants riding on a motorcycle overtook him near a cinema and fired at him from a close range. Bharatiya was rushed to the Sadar hospital, where the doctors declared him “brought dead.”

Sources close to the family claimed that the incident occurred a week ahead of his daughter’s wedding, scheduled on December 1. “Bharatiya was carrying the wedding cards of his daughter with him. Nobody suspected that he would be attacked in the heart of the town,” a shell-shocked Manoj said, adding that he was riding pillion on the bike of Bharatiya.

Bharatiya’s wife Sunita Devi, a councillor, initially refused to hand over his body to the police for post-mortem. “What’s the use of the post-mortem when the real culprit will not be brought to the book,” she asked Siwan superintendent of police (SP) Vikas Burman when the latter visited her house to persuade her to let the police complete the legal formalities.

Bharatiya, a source said, was initially associated with former Siwan MP Shahabuddin, now serving sentence in the Siwan divisional jail in a kidnapping and murder case. He remained with Shahabuddin till 2004 and contested Assembly election from Siwan on the ticket of the Congress in 2010. Later, he switched over to the BJP and was appointed the local MP’s media in-charge, the source said.

“This is a political murder,” a resident said on Monday.

Siwan SP Burman said the case would be probed from all angles.