Ranchi police on Monday claimed to have solved murder case of Ranchi Civil Court lawyer Manoj Jha as the police disclosed that five criminals have been arrested along with weapons used in the murder.
The arrested accused were identified as Sonu Ansari, Imdad Ansari and Rizwan Ansari, who are natives under Tamar police station of Ranchi, whereas other two arrested accused Sanjit Majhi and Shakil Ansari are the natives of Saraikela-Kharsawan district and Purulia of West Bengal respectively. They have been arrested from Baghmundi locality of West Bengal.
According to police Afsar Alam alias Langda alias Chotu, a local land mafia mastermind of the crime and raids are going on to arrest him.
Ranchi SSP Surendra Kumar Jha who addressed a press conference said that on July 26 these criminals shot dead the lawyer at Rargaon under Tamar police station where he was supervising construction works of St Xavier’s College.
The college administration had purchased 14 acres of land for construction of the college building. A local land mafia and criminal Afsar Alam alias Langda alias Chotu was trying to grab college land. The College administration had approached the court for a peaceful and legal occupation of the land after the accused tried to create a legal dispute on the land. The court had ruled in the favour of the college. Deceased lawyer was supervising construction of the building And boundary wall of the college. Afsar Alam is the main accused of the case as a conspiracy with other criminals to eliminate the lawyer to grab college land.
Local resident of Tamar said that accused Afsar Alam was a police informer. Claiming police protection he was also illegally capturing land and was involved in criminal activities also. Last year he was arrested for threatening and manhandling revenue circle officer Kamal Kishor Singh to grab someone's land.
Ranchi police was under tremendous pressure to solve this case as lawyers across Jharkhand had observed token protest whereas the Jharkhand High Court had expressed deep concern over the Murder of the lawyer. Ranchi SSP swiftly formed a special investigation team to solve the case and carried raids on whereabouts of criminals in West Bengal, Odisha, besides Jharkhand.