Dr K K Kaushik
Muzaffarpur : Police on Tuesday confirmed that Junior Engineer(JE), MANREGA, Muroul, in Muzaffarpur district Sarita Kumar had been murdered. An FIR was lodged in this connection by her mother against unidentified persons in this connection with Ahiyapur police station, Muzaffarpur, on October 24 night. Muzaffarpur DM Dharmendra Kumar and SSP Vivek Kumar on Tuesday visited the place of occurrence in Bajranj Vihar colony.
SSP Vivek Kumar said the statement of Sarita’s mother and circumstantial evidence found at an underconstruction house at Bajrang Vihar colony, Ahiyapur, where she was allegedly burnt alive to death on October 24 night, clearly indicate that she had been murdered. Police sources said that police were quizzing the owner of the underconstruction house Vijay Kumar Gupta and her husband Vijay Kumar Nayak. Gupta is a native of Chiraiya in East Champaran district whereas Nayak is native of village Phulkaha under Kunhouli police station in Sitamarhi district.
The SSP has constituted a team headed by DSP Ashish Anand to probe into Sarita murder case. The DSP said that it appears that Sarita was killed somewhereelse and then the body was brought over to Bajrang Vihar house and shown as burnt alive. He said that had she been burnt alive the neighbours would have seen the fire and heard her screams. Moreover, no foul smell was emitting from the house. The seizure of a suicide note from the house has further added to the mystery surrounding the murder. Police are also looking into the love affair angle in the case.
Sarita’s son Dhruv, a polytechnic student in Darbhanga, who has reached Muzaffarpur, said his parents had strained relationship for the last eight-ten years. Sarita’s mother has also said that the couple had sharp differences for the last ten years. Sarita’s younger son lived with her at Muzaffarpur but was his maternal grandparents for the past few days.
Sarita had a three storey house in Bajrang Vihar colony just opposite the house of Gupta where she was allegedly burnt alive. The key of Gupta’s house used to be with Sarita who occasionally used it do her official work.