RAJ KUMAR
Ranchi, June 8: Residents of the OCC compound staged a dharna to mark their protest against the broad daylight murder of a jewellery shop owner Rajesh Kumar Pal at his residence in the locality.
As locality residents staged a dharna, jewellery shop owners across the state kept their shops closed to express solidarity with the Pal’s family. They are demanding immediate arrest of the miscreants involved in the incident, proper security cover for businessmen and compensation to the dependents of the victim.
OCC compound is close to Ranchi Lake, one of the tourist destinations of the city. LEBB school, which is known as Bangla School, is also in the same area. Three police stations including Daily Market, Hindpiri and Kotwali are hardly one kilometre from the spot.
On Tuesday afternoon, around 2.30 pm, six armed miscreants posing as customers entered the house of Pal and collected jewellery at gunpoint. After Pal put up a resistance, one of the miscreants shot at him. Pal took a bullet in his head and fell. When Pal’s maternal uncle came to the rescue, miscreants also attacked him with a pistol butt and escaped.
Pal was taken to Santevita Hospital, from where he was referred to Medica, where doctors under proper examination declared him brought dead. Police recovered a pistol and helmet from the spot.
