The Special Investigating Team (SIT) headed by SP Rural is yet to trace the shooters involved in cold blooded murder BJP leader Pankaj Gupta at Nagri, hardly 25 km from the State Capital, on Sunday morning. Police is now going to send the CCTV footage to Delhi to get it processed, said SP (Rural) Ranchi, Ajit Peter Dungdung.
“No arresting has been made so far in this regard as picture of the shooter obtained from the CCTV footage very hazy and hence it is not being recognized,” said Rural SP Ajit Peter Dungdung. It will be sent to Delhi for getting it processed and make it clearer so that it could be recognized, he added.
“In the mean time, have other ways to reach out to the culprits and are also being explored and hopefully they will be arrested very soon,” said Dungdung. Each and every aspect is being considered to nab the criminals, he added.
Gupta (57), BJP Treasurer of lohardaga District, was gunned down by unidentified criminals in front of a road side eatery, barely 300 meters from Nagri Thana on Sunday morning.
Police said that four bullets were fired from close range when he was waiting outside the eatery for tea after having breakfast in it; three of the bullets hit Gupta who died on the spot. They also added that Gupta had recently purchased three decimal of land in Nagri and had reached Nagri from lohardaga to oversee construction of boundary wall being done around it.
Following directions from Chief Minister Raghubar Das, Ranchi SSP Kuldeep Dwivedi immediately formed SIT to probe the murder, which was caught on a surveillance camera installed outside the eatery.
According to the Rural SP, the SIT had been moving forward on three possible reasons behind the murder – family feud, political enmity and land dispute. “During the investigation, it was found that the first two were not the reasons behind the killing, while the third possibility – land dispute, is still being explored,” said the Rural SP.
The SIT is also checking the call details of Gupta to get some clues from it. The CCTV footage is also being shown to the criminals and also to the people of that area lodged in jail to get him recognized but all in vain. Help of lohardaga Police was also being taken to recognize the shooters as Gupta was from lohardaga.
Meanwhile, intensive raids were conducted throughout the night on Sunday at the locations of history sheeter criminals and many of them were also detained for questioning to nab the shooters.
Those, who were not found at home, were asked to report in the concerned Police Station.
The Police Headquarters in Ranchi has also announced a cash reward of Rs50,000 for information on the shooters.