Drishyam Plot FailedPATNA: He allegedly borrowed a trick from Drishyam, switched off his mobile phone in Surat, travelled nearly 2,000 km to his village, killed his sleeping father with an axe and returned to Surat, believing he had left police with no trail to follow. But one call to his wife proved to be the loose thread that unravelled the entire plan.Samastipur police on Oct 2 claimed to have cracked the July 26 murder of farmer Raghuveer Sahni, revealing that the alleged killer was not an outsider but his own son, Shiv Shankar Sahni. Police arrested Shiv Shankar in Surat on Oct 1 and sent him to jail after interrogation.Cops said Shiv Shankar had allegedly watched Ajay Devgn’s Drishyam and drew inspiration from the film while planning the murder. He switched off his phone before leaving Surat so that investigators would continue to see his last known location there.But the plan had one fatal flaw: he spoke to his wife after the murder.Raghuveer was sleeping outside his house in Darwa village under Halai police station on the night of July 26 when someone allegedly attacked him with an axe. The weapon was reportedly taken from inside the house itself. Raghuveer was struck four times on the head and died.From the beginning, the fact that the murder weapon was found inside the house made police suspect that the attacker could have been someone familiar with the family. The investigation eventually turned towards Shiv Shankar.Patori SDPO BK Medhavi said Shiv Shankar admitted his involvement during interrogation and disclosed details related to the crime.“Shiv Shankar had travelled from Surat to Patna by train. From Patna, he went to Hajipur and then to Patori. Around 8 pm, he allegedly got down at Patori and took a toto to Jorpura Chowk. From there, instead of taking a direct route, he allegedly walked nearly four kilometres through fields to reach his village. He reached home around midnight,” Medhavi said.The front door was locked, so he entered through the rear door.According to investigators, Shiv Shankar entered a room inside the house and found an axe. He allegedly picked it up, walked towards the front of the house and attacked his father while he was asleep.He then allegedly made his way to Lagunia railway station, travelled via Patori to Patna and, after reaching the city in the morning, boarded the Pune-Patna Express back to Surat.On paper, the plan appeared designed to make him difficult to trace. His phone was off and his apparent last location was Surat. But police were not looking only at the phone’s last location.Police said Shiv Shankar switched on his phone again while returning to Surat and spoke to his wife. Investigators examining his call detail records found the conversation and, crucially, the mobile tower location associated with it. The phone had been detected in the Patori area on the night of the murder. Shortly afterwards, it was switched off again. Nearly 36 hours later, the phone came back online in Surat.The suspicion reportedly grew stronger when Shiv Shankar did not return to attend his father’s last rites.“Shiv Shankar during interrogation revealed that he frequently had disputes with his father and wife and was upset over the conflicts. Another possible motive under investigation is land. Shiv Shankar wanted to sell some land but was unable to do so,” the SDPO added.
