Suspect in Gopal Khemka murder case killed in encounter

In a major development in the case of businessman Gopal Khemka’s murder, the police killed a suspect in an encounter near Damaiya ghat in Patna on Tuesday morning.

The police said a team investigating the high-profile case had reached the residence of Vikas alias Raja, the suspect in the murder of Khemka. As per the reports, Raja tried to attack the police, following which an encounter broke out, resulting in his being killed during the cross-firing.

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The police recovered a pistol and cartridges from the encounter site.

Vikas was an arms dealer and supplied weapons to the main accused. His body has been sent to Nalanda Medical College for post-mortem.

Meanwhile, the main accused Umesh alias Vijay Yadav has also been arrested by the police.

Confirming the development, JD(U) leader Rajeev Ranjan said, “As per the information we have received, Police have killed an accused in the Khemka murder case who tried to attack police. Nitish Kumar ji is monitoring every incident.”

Khemka, a prominent businessman and BJP leader, was shot dead by unidentified assailants outside his residence in Patna’s Gandhi Maidan area on Friday last week.

Earlier, Khemka’s son Gaurav Khemka, while narrating the incident, said that his father had gone to the Bankipore Club.

“When he returned home at 11:20 PM, assailants who were already waiting at the gate shot him in the head,” he said, adding, “We are scared and demand that the government provide us security and ensure the accused are arrested and punished.”

In 2018, the industrialist’s other son, Gunjan Khemka, was also shot dead in a similar fashion.

The chilling murder of the businessman that took place just months ahead of assembly elections triggered a massive political slugfest in Bihar with Opposition RJD and Congress slamming the NDA government in Bihar over law and order.

Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha and senior Congress MP, Rahul Gandhi, said that the BJP and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar have made Bihar the “crime capital of India”. He called on the people of the state to vote for a change in the upcoming elections.