Bihar: 4 arrested in Katihar’s ex-mayor murder case

PATNA: Four persons have been arrested in former Katihar mayor Shivraj Paswan’s murder case. However, eight other accused, including a BJP MLA’s nephew, are evading arrest, Purnia range IG Suresh Kumar Chaudhary said on Friday. Police are interrogating the arrested persons, he said.
Paswan was shot dead at Santoshi Chowk under Town police station of Katihar at around 9.30pm on Thursday.He was mayor for hardly around two months after getting elected unopposed earlier this year. He was politically well connected and had climbed the success ladder rapidly in the last six months. The mayor’s post had fallen vacant after the incumbent was elected to the state assembly last year.
Katihar municipal commissioner Minendra Kumar said Paswan was mayor till June 26 this year. “He had a tenure of hardly two months. Fresh elections could not be conducted due to Covid-19,” he said and added: Paswan was councillor of ward 16 for two consecutive terms. His wife Manju Devi has represented ward 17 for three consecutive terms.”
The motive behind the murder is not clear yet. Raids are on to nab the other accused named in the FIR, the IG said and added, Paswan’s supporters protested at the KMCH and the Town police station last night. Additional forces have been deployed at a few places as per necessity.”
Postmortem was conducted at Sadar hospital by a medical board, he added.
Town police station SHO Raghvendra Prasad Singh said those arrested are Pintu Paswan (32) and his brother Shubham Paswan (28) and Kumkum Devi (55) and her daughter Manisha Srivastava (28). They are residents of Driver Tola near Santoshi Chowk. “The killers were hiding around Kumkum’s house outside which the former mayor had parked his bike just before his murder. Paswan had left home after receiving a phone call on Thursday night,” he said.
Singh said Paswan’s brother Chotu Paswan has lodged an FIR against 12 persons, including the four arrested. “Neeraj Paswan is the prime accused in the FIR. He is the nephew of a BJP MLA from Katihar,” Singh added.
He said four abandoned bikes, suspected to be used by the killers, two countrymade pistols, including a semi-automatic one, two empty and three live cartridges were recovered from the spot on Friday. “Police have also seized cellphones of all the four arrested persons,” Singh said. He said the former mayor used to deal in real estate also.