PATNA: Four of the 12 named accused in former
Katihar mayor murder case are yet to be arrested by the police. The former mayor, Shivraj Paswan, was shot dead near Santoshi Chowk in Katihar town on July 29.
Altogether 12 people, including Neeraj Paswan, a BJP MLA’s nephew, Srikant Srivastava alias Tuntun, former councillor of Katihar’s ward number 16 and his two sons Sunny Srivastava and Goldy Srivastava were made named accused in the FIR registered with Town police station in connection with the murder.
Shivraj had won election from ward number 16 for two consecutive times. His short tenure as mayor had ended on June 26 this year as elections could not be held on time due to Covid pandemic.
Katihar sadar SDPO Amarkant Jha said four accused – Srikant, Sunny, Ankit Chauhan and Abhishek Mahto – are still evading arrest.
Jha said Neeraj was arrested from Falka police station area on Thursday night. “He was sent to jail on Friday after production in a local court,” he said, adding two more accused, including Goldy, were arrested from Korha police station area. He said eight named accused and four others who were not named in the FIR have so far been arrested in connection with the case.
Jha said interrogations revealed that Shivraj had thrashed Abhishek’s father Prakash Mahto near his residence around a fortnight back along with some of his supporters. “Abhishek had come to the rescue of his father. His friend Goldy had also joined him. Goldy was also thrashed by the ex-mayor and his supporters,” he said.
The SDPO added a conspiracy was hatched to kill Shivraj after the incident. “Interrogations also revealed that it was Sunny and Ankit who had opened fire on the former mayor from a close range,” he said.