PATNA: Director general of police (DGP) SK Singhal on Friday said the state police headquarters would consider the demand for a CBI inquiry into IndiGo station manager Rupesh Kumar Singh’s murder case if his family submits any petition in this regard.
He said this when TOI asked the DGP at a presser what action would be taken if Rupesh’s family submits a petition for CBI inquiry into the murder case in which one Rituraj Singh had been arrested on Tuesday. The wife and elder brother of the deceased have raised serious doubts over the police claim that Rupesh was killed on January 12 by Rituraj to take revenge of a road rage incident near the Patna airport in November last.
Rupesh’s brother Dinesh Singh told TOI over the phone on Thursday that the family wanted a CBI inquiry monitored by the Patna high court into the case. Singh said the family wants the state government to recommend the case for a CBI probe, failing which they will move the high court.
However, additional chief secretary (home) Amir Subhani, who also addressed the press conference along with the DGP, said police would try to satisfy Rupesh’s family with their investigation and establish the facts which surfaced in the case before the court.
When contacted after the presser, Dinesh told TOI that they will submit a written petition to the DGP for CBI inquiry, if needed to do so. “We are not satisfied with the road rage theory claimed by the police as the motive behind murder. The family suspects some other serious motive behind Rupesh’s killing,” he said.
Meanwhile, Patna SSP Upendra Kumar Sharma met the grieving wife of Rupesh and other family members at their native place in Chhapra on Friday and apprised them about the investigation made in the case till now.
When asked, the SSP said police tried to tell the family everything about the investigation as several distorted news were being aired in the media in the case. “They were apprised about how the killer was nabbed. They were shown all the CCTV camera footages,” he said, adding it’s their right to know about the investigation.
He also said the family requested for security of Rupesh’s wife Neetu Singh. “She would be provided an armed bodyguard by the Patna police,” he said.
The SSP said Saran police had already deployed two guards at Rupesh’s residence in his native village Sanwari.
He said Patna police got to know that Rituraj had been sent to jail in a land grabbing, rioting and Arms Act case lodged with Raxaul police station in Motihari in 2016.