Ranchi, Oct. 12: Prodded by Delhi headquarters, the anti-corruption branch of CBI Jharkhand started a fresh hunt for two sharpshooters accused of killing influential trade union leader V.G. Gopal 24 years ago in Jamshedpur.
Though the trail is cold, CBI yesterday requested East Singhbhum administration and Ghaghidih Central Jail to provide details about alleged hitmen Jai Prakash Shukla alias Rajan Shukla and Bunty Sahu, who according to the agency gunned down Gopal, then president of Tata Workers' Union, on October 14, 1993.
The 'top priority' and 'confidential' letter, which The Telegraph accessed, terms both as 'permanent absconders', carrying a reward of Rs 1 lakh each on their heads, and says the duo were absconding from the day Gopal was killed along with his security guard Madan Prasad outside his office in Bistupur, Jamshedpur.
The CBI, which took over the case in 1994 from then Bihar government, so far doesn't even have photographs of Shukla and Sahu, but believes the duo shot the labour leader.
So far, CBI's probe has led to conviction of two other conspirators in the case.
In October 2015, Jharkhand High Court heard the case of three alleged co-conspirators who were chargesheeted by the CBI, acquitted one Yogendra Kumar Sharma for lack of evidence and sentenced two others, Kunal Jena and Lalit Chandra Biswas, to life.
But, gunmen Shukla and Sahu proved elusive.
A senior CBI officer today said they sought specific details about Shukla and Sahu.
"Our probe established Shukla solemnised his marriage with a girl at the district registrar anywhere between 1987 and 1991," he said.
Based on this lead, CBI requested the administration to give all available details about Shukla and his wife, including marriage registration document and names of witnesses, as well as any photographs, addresses or thumb impressions available.
The CBI sought details about Shukla and Sahu from Ghaghidih jail authorities on the premise that the duo would have been behind bars on judicial custody sometime.
So far, what is known about Shukla is that he was from Uttar Pradesh's Unnao district, and in the early 1990s, lived in the steel city's Shastrinagar. Sahu hailed from Jamshedpur.
