‘RJD leader killed for land worth Rs 25 crore’

PATNA: RJD leader Dina Gope alias Dina Yadav (52) was murdered by contract killers over a land dispute with his namesake from Karorichak under the Phulwarisharif police station area on May 12, Patna SSP Manu Maharaaj said on Wednesday.

Dina, a former councillor of ward number 10, was gunned down and two of his relatives received gunshot injuries in front of his residence near Manikchand Talab in Bangali Tola under the Gardanibagh police station area at around 4.30am when they had returned from a marriage function in Beur locality. Seven empty cartridges, including six of AK-47, were recovered from the spot. His wife Amravati Devi is former deputy mayor of Patna.

The SSP said the murder mystery was solved following the arrest of notorious criminal Vikas Singh (48) from Kokar at Ranchi in Jharkhand on Tuesday. Vikas, the first suspect to be arrested in the murder case, was brought to Patna on Wednesday on a transit remand.

The SSP said the deceased had a dispute with Dina of Karorichak over 25 kattha land located at Harnichak under the Gardanibagh police station area in Patna. The market price of the land is above Rs25 crore, he said. “Vikas had supplied an AK-47 rifle and a US made pistol to Dina of Karorichak, who had paid more than Rs30 lakh to another criminal Bhola Rai of Parsa Bazar for killing the RJD leader,” he said and added, “Bhola and his associates had reached the spot in a black car and shot Dina by the AK-47 and pistols supplied to him by Vikas.”

Police sources said Vikas had charged Rs8 lakh from Bhola to rent him the AK-47. Sources said Dina is an accused in at least 32 murder and extortion cases lodged in Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal. “He is also wanted by the Central Bureau of Investigation for the murder of two businessmen in Kolkata in 2014,” police said. Vikas was lodged in Beur jail from 2003 to 2010.

“A JD(U) leader from the minority community was Vikas’s next target,” sources said.