Murder suspects on SIT radar

Patna: A resident of Arwal district and his close relatives are on the radar of the special investigation team (SIT) assigned to probe the daylight murder of Alok Chandra, manager of a nationalised bank.

Unidentified armed criminals shot dead Alok, 31, when he was returning to Arwal from his native village in Nawada district on his motorbike on Monday. A case was lodged with the Parasbigha police station in Jehanabad district in this connection.

Deputy inspector-general (Magadh range) Vinay Kumar visited the spot on Tuesday. On his return to Gaya, Vinay said on Wednesday that the SIT had collected substantial clues. “People who were not happy with action initiated by the slain branch manager are under the SIT’s surveillance,” Vinay told The Telegraph over phone from Gaya.

Alok, who was a manager at Bank of Baroda’s Arwal branch, had reportedly provided important evidence to the Mehandia police in Arwal in a case related to siphoning off of money under the central government’s Indira Awas Yojana. The case was lodged by the block development officer of the area in July last year.

An investigating officer said under cover of anonymity that police arrested the accused and sent him to jail. He was released only recently. “His wife and a brother were evading arrest,” the officer said.

He said a sum of Rs 8 lakh was to be distributed among 37 beneficiaries but the man in question misappropriated it through his three consumer service centres. The centres were running under the supervision of Bank of Baroda. Alok was manager of the bank that authorised the man to run the centres at Telpa, Usari and Balsara villages. “But he raised objections over the three centres being run from Mehandia in violation of the terms and condition in the deal. He was also cooperating with the police team probing the defalcation case,” the investigating officer said, adding “some brokers were also on the police’s radar.”

An automobile dealer was also on the SIT scanner. “The action initiated by the slain manager made the automobile dealer incur huge financial losses, which could have provoked him to commit the crime,” the sleuth said.

DIG Vinay clarified that the police have taken the incident as a challenge and will gather all evidence to get the accused punished. “Such an incident sends a wrong message and will discourage those trying to set things right. So we will leave no stone unturned to solve the mystery,” he said.

Vinay said that the SPs of Jehanabad and Arwal have been told to work in tandem with each other. He said the assailants chose an isolated place, Nehalpur on the Jehanabad-Arwal road, to carry out the operation. “They opened fire at the manager as soon as he slowed down his motorbike because of a diversion near a culvert,” he said.

The incident was meticulously planned and assailants pumped at least four bullets to ensure he was dead. On Tuesday, bank employees in the region boycotted work and staged dharnas.

Courtesy: The Telegraph