Gopalganj contractor had committed suicide: Police

PATNA: Preliminary police investigations have suggested that Gopalganj contractor Ramashankar Singh had committed suicide by setting himself afire after pouring petrol on him on the premises of the newly constructed bungalow of chief engineer of water resources department Murlidhar Singh on Thursday.
A 30-member team from the state police headquarters headed by CID’s deputy inspector general P N Mishra submitted its 8-page report to the ADGP, CID, Vinay Kumar on Saturday, mentioning that the contractor took the extreme step under duress.“The contractor got infuriated after a heated argument with the chief engineer over payment of bills,” the report said.
The team comprising officers from the economic offences unit and forensic science collected evidences from the spot which hinted at the contractor committing suicide in the guard room of the office-cum-residence of the chief engineer at Gandak Colony in Gopalganj. The team traced the witness who got the injured contractor admitted to the sadar hospital at Gopalganj after the incident.
The deceased contractor’s son, Rana Singh, had alleged in the FIR that his father was set on fire by the chief engineer, his wife and six others when he (contractor) had gone to the latter’s residence for payment of bills. The injured was rushed to the local hospital from where he was referred to Gorakhpur where he succumbed to his burn injuries.
The members of the police team seized Rs.2.74 lakh in cash, gold ornaments worth Rs10 lakh and passbooks having deposits over Rs 20 lakh from the residence of the chief engineer, who is absconding after the incident. Documents related to flats in Lucknow and Patna were also seized. A video has also been recovered in which the chief engineer is demanding Rs 15 lakh bribe from the deceased contractor, a source in the police headquarters said.
The members of the team were taken by surprise when they came to know that around Rs 3 crore was spent on the construction of the office-cum-bungalow of the chief engineer. “This is sheer wastage of public money,” a member of the team said.
Apart from the chief engineer Murlidhar, superintending engineer Jitendra Kumar Singh and executive engineer Satyendra Kumar Singh have been named as accused in the FIR lodged with the Gopalganj town police station in connection with the incident.
Gopalganj SDPO Naresh Paswan said, “The police investigation is proceeding in right direction. The scientific evidences don’t corroborate the allegations (read murder) levelled in the police complaint. Prima facie it appeared to be a case of suicide.”
He, however, added that they would gather enough evidences before jumping to any conclusion. The motorbike belonging to the contractor was seized by the police and the statement of the witness was recorded to substantiate the police findings, he added.
The police had recovered a plastic container which was used to carry petrol to the spot.