Two contract killers among four arrested in advocate murder case

PATNA: Police on Saturday arrested four more accused, including alleged supari (contract) killers Suraj Yadav and Pradyuman Kumar alias Baba, near BMP-5 in advocate Jitendra Kumar murder case. The two others were identified as Laxman Kumar and Avinash Kumar alias Ranjit, the conspirators. Jitendra (52) was shot dead at Punaichak when he was on way to the Patna high court on Wednesday morning.
DIG (central range) Rajesh Kumar said one country-made pistol, five live cartridges and Rs10,000 were also recovered from their possession. He said Suraj and Pradyuman were among the four killers who trailed Jitendra on two separate bikes that day. “Two more shooters are yet to be nabbed,” he said. Jitendra’s elder brother named nine people as accused in the case.

According to the DIG, the reason behind Jitendra’s murder was his 20 kattha land worth around Rs6 crore at Moti Chowk in Khagaul area. Land broker Mohammad Tazuddin, Jitendra’s wife Neetu Singh and brother-in-law Pansujit Kumar were eyeing the prime land. Pansujit, in fact, had forged a power of attorney and signed an agreement with Tazuddin to sell the land. Neetu has been living with her parents since 2007 after filing a dowry case against Jitendra in a Muzaffarpur court.

Three brothers — Rakesh Kumar, Rupesh Kumar and Ritesh Kumar — were arrested from Khagaul while Neetu was arrested from her residence at Banaras Bank Chowk in Muzaffarpur on Wednesday itself. Tazuddin, from Gardanibagh area, is still absconding.

“Tazuddin had paid Rs1 lakh as advance of the Rs6 lakh deal with the killers through Laxman. The four were nabbed when they reached near the BMP-5 premises to collect Rs5 lakh from a suspect,” the DIG said. “The shooters had trailed Jitendra twice on Wednesday. The conspiracy to eliminate him was hatched six months back. Two of the accused are Tazuddin’s partners,” he added.

Police sources said Jitendra’s wife had already taken Rs20 lakh from Tazuddin against the land. Tazuddin had himself collected Rs75 lakh from several people in the name of selling them the prime land.

“Tazuddin, who claims himself to be a youth RJD leader, had tried to influence Jitendra several times to sell him the plot. Police are investigating into the role a ward counsellor and another political figure in the murder,” sources said.

They said Jitendra had also signed an agreement with a builder to sell his plot and had taken Rs5.5 lakh in advance. “However the builder took back his money and cancelled the agreement as soon as he started receiving threat calls from Tazuddin after putting up his construction firm’s board on the land,” sources said.