Lagatar24 Network
Dumka, Feb 4: The murder mystery of the clerk of Rural Development Department (special division) Deep Kumar Srivastava has been deepening with Dumka police itself being under the scanner.
Srivastava’s body was recovered from near his rented house in Dangal Pada locality under the Town police station on Tuesday morning which was lying in a pool of blood along one side of the main road between Dangal Pada and Shiv Mandir Chowk.
Relatives of the deceased clerk have demanded a wider probe into his brutal killing, alleging that the cops at the town police station area had recently subjected him to immense torture in connection with a case of financial misappropriation of Rs 1.5 crore lodged by his department a few months back and extorted Rs seven Lakh from him to free him from the financial scam.
“My brother Deep Kumar Srivastava was detained by the police for several days on the pretext of the investigation into a scam of Rs 1.42 crore which took place in his department. He was released only after he paid Rs 7 lakh to the cops,” Sandeep Srivastava, the brother of the deceased government employee said to the reporters, adding that the sum was arranged by the deceased’s colleagues and himself to get rid of the legal embroil.
Notably, three accused including two other employees of the Rural Development Department were finally booked by the police in connection with the FIR of the misappropriation of the said amount which was lodged three months back, sans the recovery of even a penny.
As such the murder of Srivastava is also being viewed in the backdrop of the financial scam allegedly committed by the employees of the Rural Development Department in terms of transferring the whopping sum to another account than the one transaction should otherwise be made to.
Relatives also raised points for not engaging dog squads to reach the assailants and other ‘deficiencies’ of the initial police investigation.
Meanwhile, Dumka SP Ambar Lakda has constituted an SIT (special investigating team) to crack the murder case of Deep Kumar Srivastava to be headed by the Dy SP Noor Mustafa and comprising other cops of the Town police station including the officer-in-charge Devbrat Poddar against whom the allegation of extorting money is being levelled by his relatives.
The deceased employee hailed from Ratu road in Ranchi and was staying in a rented house since being transferred here a couple of years back.
Although an FIR in connection with the sensational murder has been lodged against unknown persons, the police are looking for one Santosh Kumar with whom the deceased government employee was last spotted on the previous evening of the recovery of the dead body.
