Alok Mishra
Patna: With the arrest of three persons including the gardener of Salona Kunj, Patna Police on November 8 claimed to have cracked the mystery behind the murder of an elderly couple at P& T colony under Kotwali police station, Patna, within 48 hours of the incident, which had rocked the state capital on Chhath Puja day.
An elderly couple Bipin Bihari Das and his wife Savita Sharma were found murdered inside their plush house `Salona Kunj’ at P&T colony on November 6 morning.They hailed from Bakhri in Begusarai district. Das was Mahant of Salona Mut at Bakhri in Begusarai district and was living in Patna for the past 40 years.
Addressing mediapersons here, Patna Senior SP Manu Maharaaj said that Patna Police took this case as challenge and he personally supervised the case. He said that this particular case reminded the Patnaites about the brutality of Papiya Ghosh murder case and triple murder case of Nala Road as the elderly couple were murdered brutally. The SSP said that immediately four police teams were constituted to crack the case. He said that during questioning of deceased’s son and daughter in-law, police teams felt that someone from inside was involved in the case as none of the locks in the house were either broken or damaged.
The SSP said that during probe, it came to light that an employee cum gardener of the house Bushan Yadav was sacked few days back by the elderly couple but kept visiting the house. He said that raids were carried out to detain Yadav, but he evaded the police teams. “ Later a police team arrested Yadav when he was trying to hide in Patna,” he said adding that though initially Yadav tried to mislead the police team interrogating him, he later spilled the beans. The SSP said that Yadav disclosed the names of his two cousins: Dharmendra Yadav and Jitendra Yadav, who also assisted him in the heinous crime. He said that the trio had planned to carry out the murder
before Diwali.
The SSP said that Yadav was working at Salona Kunj for the past one year. He said that Yadav told police that he had stayed at Salona Kunj on some pretext and called his cousins for commiting the crime. The trio could not carry out their nefarious plan on Diwali as the elderly couple grew suspicious. SSPMaharaaj said. He said that Yadav
also told police that on November 5 they planned to carry out their operation as the people were busy in Chhath festival. He said that the trio assembled near Salona Kunj and when they saw the female domestic help coming out of the Salona Kunj, they sneaked inside the sprawling bunglow.
The SSP said that as Yadav saw Bipin Bihari Das there and demanded his salary arrear from him. But ,Das along with his wife entered inside the house. He said that trio followed them and caught them and strangled them to death with towels. The SSP said that after that the trio opened the almirahs with the help of keys and collected the valuables and gold ornaments and came out of the bunglow. He said that later police arrested Dharmendra Yadav and Jitendra Yadav, both residents of village Karhara under Ghosi police station in Jehanabad. All the valuables besides Rs
63,000 cash was recovered from the possession of the arrested persons. The SSP said that the recovered item included two gold coins, five gold bangles (kangan), seven gold rings, one gold bracelet, 20 pair ear tops, one gold mangalsutra, 3 gold necklaces, five costly watches, one gold locket, two diamond tops, three cellphones besides other jewellery.
Police crack elderly couple murder case, 3 held, jewellery and cash recovered
