The Muzaffarpur police have claimed to have cracked the case of at least three murders and an attempted murder in the town between April 30 to May 8, all involving private security guards as victims, with the arrest of a 32-year-old man who is allegedly a drug addict.
The accused has been identified as Shivchandra Paswan.
According to police, Paswan targeted private security guards on night duty to rob them of cash and mobile phones. The breakthrough in the case came after four persons, including a woman, who were involved in sale and purchase of looted mobile phones from victims, were detained.
Additional director general (ADG) of police (headquarters) Jitendra Singh Gangwar told reporters on Friday that Muzaffarpur police had lodged four separate FIRs with the Ahiyapur police station against unidentified suspects in connection with murder of three night guards and a grievously injured one.
On April 30, a security guard posted on night duty at a dentist’s farm house situated near Sangam Ghat was killed. The victim was identified as Suresh Paswan (52), a resident of Muzaffarpur. He was found lying in a pool of blood. Someone seemed to have hit his head with a sharp-edged object.
Two days later, on May 2, another night guard, identified as Mustafa Ansari, a resident of East Champaran, was killed in a similar manner at Bajrang Vihar Colony while another guard, Mohammad Dulara Khalifa, was found grievously injured in Rajendra Colony, adjacent to Bajran Vihar Colony.
Police said Mustafa was on duty in an under-construction house. Dulara is battling for life at the SKMCH. He had suffered brain haemorrhage after the attack.
On May 8, Shankar Kumar Rai (32), a guard posted on night duty at a cowshed in Ayachi Phase-2 locality, was found dead there. He had a serious wound on his neck.
During investigation, police found that the accused looted cash and mobile phones from the victim after committing the crime. All the phones were found switched off at a particular location (Kolhua-Paigambarpur), the place near the house of the accused.
Later, Muzaffarpur senior superintendent of police (SSP) Rakesh Kumar constituted a special investigation team (SIT) to probe the case under the leadership of DSP (Town) Raghav Dayal. The looted mobile phones were kept on surveillance.
“Four days ago, one of the looted cell phones was found switched on. The SIT found that three different SIM cards were used in the cell phone. They collected details of the SIM owners and one of them was detained for interrogation. During interrogation, he confessed that he purchased the mobile from a woman Khusbu Devi, who runs a tea stall,” said the SSP
When detained, Khusbu revealed she had bought two cell phones from Shivchandra Paswan.
Police raided Paswan’s house and apprehended him on Thursday. “He confessed to the crime and revealed that he committed the murders between 3am and 5am after a recce of the spot in the day time,” police said.
The SSP told HT that Paswan earlier worked in a furniture shop. “Because of his addiction to drugs, the shop owner removed him from duty. Even his wife and mother had left him because of regular assaults,” said the SSP.
