Two traders shot dead in Siwan, Muzaffarpur

PATNA/MUZAFFARPUR: Two traders were killed in separate incidents in Siwan and Muzaffarpur districts in the last 24 hours.
Unidentified assailants shot dead a cloth trader, Samsuddin alias Laddan Mian (45), and locked his body in a room to mislead the police that the victim had committed suicide. The incident took place in Siwan’s Town police station area late on Friday night.The family members came to know about the incident early on Saturday when they started looking for Laddan, who was found lying in a pool of blood.
Laddan had left his house around 9.30pm on Friday after telling his family members that he would return home late as he was going to his shop for some important work. The family members started search for him when he didn’t return till 1am.
Around 2.30 am, the family members reached the cloth shop on the Station Road, but Samsuddin was not found there. Thereafter they went to the family’s another shop at Babunia Mor which was locked from outside.
An hour later they contacted a tea stall owner, who told them that Samsuddin was last seen in the room from where he used to look after his real estate business. When the family members broke open the room, Samsuddin was found lying in a pool of blood on a bed.
SHO of Siwan town police station Jai Prakash Pandit said the police reached the spot around 4pm. A live cartridge, two empty bottles of liquor cigarette packets and match boxes were recovered from the room. “Prima facie, it seems that the assailants had consumed liquor with the deceased prior to the incident,” the SHO said. Siwan SP Naveen Chandra Jha also visited the spot.
“We are looking into the case from different angles. The truth will come out and the culprits will be brought to book at the earliest,” Siwan SDPO Jitendra Pandey said.
In another incident, armed criminals, suspected to be members of liquor mafia, shot dead an automobile trader, Ankaj Kumar Thakur, on Jhapaha-Bathna road under the Ahiapur police station area in Muzaffarpur district late on Friday night.
The incident took place when Thakur was returning to his home at Bathna after closing his business establishment near Sri Krishna Medical College and Hospital (SKMCH). After getting information about the incident, Thakur’s family members and villagers took him to a private nursing home, where the doctors declared him brought dead.
Victim’s father Vashishtha Thakur said his son had made a phone call to him just before leaving his business establishment for home.
Meanwhile, locals went on rampage and tried to ransack the SKMCH campus when Thakur’s body was taken there for post mortem. They even heckled SP (city) Niraj Kumar Singh, deputy SP (town) Mukul Kumar Ranjan and other policemen.
SSP Manoj Kumar said prima facie the crime seemed to be a fallout of personal enmity.