PATNA: More than four years after Brahmeshwar Singh alias Mukhia, the dreaded chief of Bihar’s erstwhile upper caste militia Ranvir Sena, was shot dead in Ara in broad daylight, CBI sleuths tracing the killer(s) haven’t made any headway.
With the probe extracting a little more than what a SIT of Bihar Police had in a year after the June 1, 2012, murder, the Central agency announced a reward of `10 lakh for clues about the killer(s). Mukhia was allegedly responsible for wiping out over 250 lower caste people in 29 massacres, and had earned the nickname ‘Butcher of Bihar’.
Six of the eight men named as the accused by the SIT headed by then DIG (Shahabad range) Ajitabh Kumar were arrested, but got bail as police failed to establish their involvement. The prime suspect, the absconding Nand Gopal Pandey alias Fauzi, was arrested in Jamui district on June 9, but did not reveal much.
Fauzi, on whose head the state government had announced a reward of `50,000 before the case was taken up by CBI, had allegedly been a close associate of former JD(U) legislator and upper caste leader from Bhojpur, Sunil Pandey. The SIT had found enough material linking the four-term MLA to the murder, though he denied involvement.
“CBI sleuths have not been firm on that angle despite the wealth of evidence provided by SIT, such as Pandey’s rising animosity with Mukhia over the collection of huge sums of funds and mobilisation of peasants in an effort to form a political party in Bhojpur region,” said a retired police official familiar with the SIT’s investigation.
Sources said Pandey had not taken lightly the misbehaviour from 65-year-old Mukhia’s supporters during a visit to his house June 1, 2012, the day he was shot dead. “Unless CBI acts impartially by weighing the value of each piece of evidence gathered and documented by SIT, there is little chance of it reaching the real killers or those who plotted the daring murder,” said another police official.
