Caught stealing rice, gang kills mill owner & friend in Rohtas

SASARAM/PATNA: A rice mill owner and his friend were killed by a gang of miscreants who tied their hands and feet with a rope and drowned them in a roadside ditch in Rohtas district late on Tuesday night. The bodies of Manik Chand Sah, 45, and Gopal Sah, 40, were found early on Wednesday morning.
The killing of the duo sparked off protest by family members of the victims and local residents, who blocked the national highway-30 paralysing traffic on the road for about three hours on Wednesday.
Rohtas superintendent of police Satyaveer Singh said the incident took place around 11pm on Tuesday when the mill owner and his friend had gone to their newly opened rice mill at Laheri village under the Parasthua police outpost on the borders of Rohtas and Buxar districts. The duo were, in fact, returning from a wedding ceremony at Kota village, about 30 km away, in neighbouring Kaimur district on a motorbike.
The gang members, who were loading bags of rice and paddy on a truck, were taken aback when they saw the duo at the mill. “Seeing them, the miscreants tied the duo’s hands and feet with a rope and threw them into a ditch filled with water. They then pushed their motorbike on them, leading to their death instantly,” said the SP. The miscreants escaped with the truck. Sasaram subdivisional police officer Rajesh Kumar said the criminals had kept two labourers of the rice mill hostage before the arrival of its owner and his caretaker.
The SP said Sah owned two rice mills in the area. The one at Laheri village was opened recently. “The incident came to the fore when the two labourers, who were held captive on Tuesday night, reached the new mill only to find the bodies of the two,” he added.
The road blockade was lifted after the SP promised to book the culprits at the earliest. Parasthua station house officer (SHO) Sanjay Kumar Yadav said raids were carried out at different hideouts in search of the criminals. “However, no breakthrough has been made in the double murder case so far,” he added.
The mill owner was a resident of Dighti village, while his friend Gopal belonged to Sohsa village in Rohtas district, around 165 km southwest of Patna. The SHO said the bodies were handed over to their families after postmortem. “We are probing the case from different angles,” Yadav told TOI.
Deputy inspector general (Shahabad range) Rakesh Kumar Rathi said the SP was asked to crack the double murder case at the earliest. “I am keeping a close watch on the investigation.”