No arrest in Samastipur scrap dealer attack case

PATNA: Even though the special investigation team (SIT) intensified raids to arrest the two accused in the murderous attack on the railway scrap dealer Badri Goenka and his two other family members in Samastipur , no one was arrested till Sunday evening.

Police said Rohit alias Antu Isser and his cousin Harshu Isser were absconding ever since their names surfaced in the murderous attack on Goenka, his wife Sonam and their 13-year-old daughter Aditi at their Ghosh Lane residence in Samastipur town on Thursday.

Antu, a resident of Bahadurpur in Samastipur town, is an active worker of Lok Janshakti Party (LJP). He also owns a theatre in the town.

Town police station SHO Sitaram Prasad said, “Police teams have been sent outside the state to arrest them at the earliest.”

The SHO said the process of attachment of property of the accused was also underway. “If the accused don’t surrender in the court, their property will be attached soon,” he said.

The SHO is part of the SIT constituted by Samastipur SP Vikas Burman to crack the sensational case. The SIT is headed by DSP (Sadar) Pritish Kumar. The SHO said Antu had criminal antecedents. “His name had earlier figured in the killing of railway contractor Akhilesh Rai and businessman Kundan Yadav. His activities were under the police scanner for long,” he said.

The SHO revealed that more than 11 empty cartridges of 7.62 bore and 9mm pistols were seized from the site, suggesting that two pistols of different make were used in the crime. An FSL team from Muzaffarpur collected sample from the spot, he said.

Meanwhile, LJP’s Samastipur town unit president Umashankar Mishra said Antu has been framed in the case out of political vendetta. However, Mishra had told this newspaper on Saturday that disciplinary action would be taken against Antu for his involvement in criminal activities. “Everybody should respect the law. I hope he will get justice from judiciary,” Mishra said on Sunday.

On the other hand, Pankaj Singh, a close confidante of the accused, said Antu will contest the next state assembly election from Samastipur on the LJP ticket. “That’s why he had been hobnobbing with LJP MP Ramchandra Paswan, who died recently,” he said.