Police have succeeded in identifying the main accused in the Adityapur sand trader's murder and intensified search operation for nabbing the assailant and his associates involved in the murder.
According to police, after the initial probe they have zeroed on Krishna Gope as the main assailant who along with a three-member gang of criminals murdered sand trader Deepak Munda near S-Type area in Adityapur on Wednesday morning.
Krishna who is a resident of Manjhitola in Adityapur was also involved in sand business and moreover he had developed bad relation with Munda following a quarrel over something a year ago.
Police said in all six assailants, including Gope were involved in killing Munda and all these accused have fled the Adityapur locality soon after committing the crime. Except Gope none of the rest five was identified. The police are trying to get identity of the remaining five accused by grilling the family members of Gope.
Officer-in-charge, Adityapur police station, Arvind Kumar said that the police succeeded in identifying Gope's crime by quizzing several passers-by from S-Type area, where the murder took place.
" We are investigating and conducting raids at the relatives of Gope and also trying to get the names of those who were along with Gope by grilling his family members," said Kumar.
Meanwhile, a four-member team from forensic science laboratory (FSl) from Ranchi which had arrived at Adityapur late last evening has started probing the murder. The FSl team had collected the samples of the gun-powder from the SUV, the nails and splinters for understanding the kind of bomb used in the attack on Munda.
A source in the police said that the FSl team had sought the post-mortem report to find out the impact of the bomb in Munda's body, but as the autopsy report was yet to be ready they went back without receiving it.
Meanwhile, Munda's body was taken in a huge funeral procession to Parvati Ghaat in Bistupur where it was cremated this morning. Before the funeral procession had begun, the body was kept in front of his house, where hundreds of local residents had paid their tributes to the slain JMM activist.
Munda was earlier in BJP and two years ago he had switched over to JMM, but during this period he was active in the business activities than in politics.