Six arrested for firing on executive engineer

PATNA: Six persons were arrested on Tuesday in connection with the firing on executive engineer Kapil Dev Prasad (48) near Gola Road around 5am on November 17. Prasad’s driver Anand Prakash had received injuries in his hands.
Though main conspirator Dilip Rai (38) alias Bauwa Ji has been arrested, three persons, including the shooter, are still at large. Police have also resized three countrymade pistols, seven live cartridges and ten cellphones from the arrested persons.
Besides Dilip, the other accused arrested are Mandeep Ram, Abhishek Patel, Neeraj Kumar, Pankaj Kumar and Aman Kumar. Police have also recovered Neeraj’s bike, which was used in the incident. But the semi-automatic countrymade pistol from which the criminals opened fire on Prasad’s vehicle has not been recovered yet. Police had recovered an empty cartridge of 7.65mm from the spot and a pellet from the seat of Prasad’s car.
Patna SSP Manu Maharaaj said Prasad’s wife used to tie rakhi to Dilip and he took the advantage of his closeness. He said the other arrested persons were also from Chitragupta Nagar area in Danapur where the engineer lives with his family.
“Dilip said he had taken Rs5 lakh loan from several persons in the neighbourhood. He planned the crime and, on October 14, made an extortion call for Rs20 lakh to the engineer when he was at Sherghati in Gaya where he is posted in the rural works department,” the SSP said, adding that three criminals, including the shooter who opened fired on the engineer’s moving car, were yet to be nabbed.
The SSP said Dilip hired Mandal, Happy and Guddu to make the ransom call and informed them that Prasad would be leaving home early morning on November 17 to board a train for Ranchi. Mandeep passed the information to his gang members when Prasad left his home for Patna Junction.
The SSP said a stolen cellphone was used to make the ransom call to the engineer. “The criminals had planned to kill the engineer to establish their dominance in Danapur area,” he said adding that raids were on to nab the three absconding criminals involved in the crime.