PATNA: Eight including a female BJP MLA’s nephew are evading arrest while two brothers and a mother-daughter duo have been arrested in last 24 hours for their alleged involvement in Katihar former mayor Shivraj Paswan’s murder case.
Paswan, who remained mayor for hardly around two months after getting elected unopposed earlier this year, was shot dead at Santoshi chowk under Town police station of Katihar at around 9.30pm on Thursday.
Paswan was politically well connected and had climbed the success ladder rapidly in professional life in the last six months. The mayor's post had fallen vacant after the earlier one became MLA after contesting the 2019 assembly election.
Purnia range IG Suresh Kumar Chaudhary said that police are interrogating the arrested persons.
“Motive behind murder will clear within next few hours from ongoing interrogation and investigation. Raids are ongoing to nab other named accused in FIR,” he said.
The IG said that police in entire district police is on alert to avoid any law and order situation which might arise from the murder of a political person.
“However, till the now situation has been normal. Paswan’s supporters had protested at the KMCH and the Town police station last night. Additional forces have been deployed at a few places as per necessity,” he said.
To avoid any untoward situation from Friday morning, police got a post-mortem of Paswan’s body conducted at sadar hospital by a medical board just after Thursday midnight which is within hours of his killing.
Town police station SHO Raghvendra Prasad Singh said arrested persons are brothers Pintu Paswan (32) and Shubham Paswan (28) and Kumkum Devi (55) and her daughter Manisha Srivastava (28).
SHO said that all four are residents of Driver Tola near Santoshi Chowk where the killing took place.
“The killers were hiding around Kumkum’s house in front of which the former mayor parked his bike just before being killed. Paswan received a phone call only after which he left home on Thursday night,” he said.
Singh said Paswan’s brother Chotu Paswan has lodged FIR against 12 persons including the four arrested one for killing him after hatching conspiracy over personal rivalry.
“Neeraj Paswan is the number one and prime accused in the FIR. He is the one who is nephew of a BJP MLA from Katihar,” the SHO added.
He said that four abandoned bikes suspected to be used by killers, two country-made pistols including a semiautomatic one, two empty and three live cartridges were recovered from the spot in daylight on Friday from murder spot.
“Besides, police have also seized cellphones of all four arrested persons,” SHO Singh said. He said the former mayor was into real estate business besides remaining politically active.
Katihar municipal commissioner Minendra Kumar said that Paswan was mayor till June 26 this year.
“His tenure was of hardly two months. The board’s tenure elapsed and fresh elections are due for Covid-19 pandemic,” he said.
Commissioner said Paswan was councillor of ward 16 for two consecutive terms. “His wife Manju Devi is being elected as councillor from ward 17 from three consecutive times. He was popular for his friendly and helping nature,” he added.
