VISHVENDU JAIPURIAR
Hazaribag, May 10: The Hazaribag police, probing the murder of the general manager of NPTC’s outsourcing company M/s Ritwik, Sharad Kumar, in Barkagaon yesterday have to find answers to many questions related to this case.
Sources said all the senior officers of NTPC and Ritwik company are using bulletproof vehicles seeing the threat in Barkagaon. Even Sharad was also using a bulletproof SUV but yesterday he used the vehicle of another officer which was not bulletproof.
Police officials said they are trying to know whether Sharad was the target of the shooters or the officer whose vehicle was used. They said in such killing, shooters get the vehicle number to follow the target and eliminate the target once they get the right opportunity.
Even what surprises the police is that Sharad sat in the front seat and his bodyguard in the rear seat. Officials took the statement of the injured bodyguard Rajendra Prasad and asked him why he didn’t open fire. Prasad said all of a sudden firing started and he didn’t get time to retaliate.
Police officials said they are working on all possible angles so as to solve this case. After getting information about this shootout, additional director general of police (operation) Sanjay Anand Latekar and DIG Hazaribag range Narendra Kumar Singh reached Barkagaon taking information about the incident and passing instructions to officials on various points so as to crack this murder case.
About Ritwik company, it has got coal mining work for 25 years in the Chatti Bariatu coal mine. This mine is having 155 million tonnes of coal and Ritwik is given the work to take out the coal from here. Every year, the target is set to take out 7 million tonnes of coal from here. Ritwik company started its work on Nov 15, 2022.