Shivraj Paswan's murder: Katihar police suspect role of ex-councillor

PATNA: Police suspect the role of a former councillor and his two sons in the murder of former Katihar mayor Shivraj Paswan, who was shot dead near Santoshi Chowk under the Town police station area on Thursday.
Katihar Sadar SDPO Amarkant Jha on Saturday told TOI over the phone that police suspect former ward councillor Tuntun Srivastava and his two sons Guddu and Sunny Srivastava hatched a conspiracy to kill Paswan, who had thrashed Guddu and Sunny hardly fortnight back.
“Tuntun used to win from ward number 16 of Katihar town before Paswan, who was elected for two consecutive terms,” he said. “They are evading arrest. They are also among the 12 accused named in the murder case,” he said.
The SDPO said Manisha Srivastava (28), who was arrested with her mother Kumkum Devi (55) the next day of the murder, is the cousin of Guddu and Sunny. Jha said the former mayor frequently visited Manisha’s house. Guddu and Sunny knew about it.
“Paswan was shot dead immediately after he had parked his bike in front of Manisha’s residence. Police suspect Manisha’s role in passing the information to Guddu and Sunny about Paswan’s visit to her house that night,” he said.
The SDPO said technical investigation, including call detail records and analysis of the four cellphones, including one each of Manisha and her mother, will further reveal the truth.
In reply to a query, he said eight persons were still evading arrest. “Police would soon move the court to pray for the arrest warrant against them so that further process of their property attachment could be taken up afterwards to force them to surrender,” he said.
Jha said intensive raids were going on to nab the other accused and trace the shooters.