Bihar: Gorkha Vahini constable killed near Gopalganj temple

PATNA: A Bihar Special Armed Police (BSAP) constable has been stabbed to death in Gopalganj district. His body was found early Wednesday morning near the famous Thave temple, where he was deployed.
The deceased, Arjun Dayal alias Arjun Thapa, 38, was in uniform. He was a native of Chitwan in Nepal and served in the elite Gorkha Vahini (1st battalion) of the erstwhile Bihar Military Police (BMP), now known as BSAP. This battalion is deployed only on specialised duty like CM security and anti-Maoist operations.A company of the battalion is deployed in Gopalganj.
Police suspect the murder was a fallout of his financial dispute with some Gopalganj residents. “He was probably called out of the temple premises and stabbed to death,” a police source said.
Battalion DSP Muttafique Ahmed, who rushed to Gopalganj from Patna, said Dayal was deployed there since March this year. He said Dayal’s family in Nepal has been informed. “No one can come as the border is sealed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. We are putting efforts to send the body to the family across the border from Raxaul,” he added.
“The entire company, including the section guarding the temple, was scheduled to move to Bagaha on Wednesday morning,” he said.
Thave police station SHO Kiran Shankar said Dayal went missing at around midnight. “He was on duty to guard the temple without arms from 10pm to midnight. His colleagues started searching him during shift change,” he said.
The SHO said they lived on the temple premises to guard it round-the-clock in two hours shift. The villagers spotted Dayal’s body on a road to Chetitola village. “The spot is around 500 metres away from the temple. His cellphone or purse was not recovered from the body,” he said.
Shankar said there was one stabbing wound in his neck and at least three in the back of the head. “No sharp-edged weapon was recovered from the spot,” he said.
The SHO said postmortem was conducted before sending the body to the police lines to pay him last respect. No one has been arrested.