Ara: A student who arrived from Surat, Gujarat, a day earlier and was to take the Class XI final exam conducted by the BSEB, which commenced on Monday, was shot dead just three hours before his exam.The 18-year-old boy, Sumit Kumar Pandey, was shot in the head. He was lying dead about 1km away from his village Banahi under Shahpur police station area in Bhojpur district.“Sumit’s father, Rajiv Kumar Pandey, works in Surat. After spending about one-and-a-half months with his father, he returned home on Sunday night to write the exam. At about 10.30pm on Sunday night, Sumit, who was sleeping beside me, got up after he probably received a phone call and went out after locking the house from outside. However, at about 6am on Monday, I was informed that Sumit was lying dead beside the Bankat-Banahi road. He was shot in the head. We don’t have any enmity with anyone in the village,” said Ramakant Pandey, grandfather of the deceased, while talking to reporters at the Sadar Hospital, Ara.Shahpur SHO, Rajesh Malakar, told TOI on Monday, “Though the family members of the deceased enmity with anyone, the police investigation is going on to trace the culprits and ascertain the reason behind the murder. The body was sent to the Sadar Hospital, Ara, for autopsy.”Meanwhile, the cousin of the deceased, Avinash Pandey, said, “I saw Sumit alighting at the Banahi station and going home on Sunday evening when I was at my shop. Later, he talked to me and my brother till 9pm. He went to sleep after I told him that it was getting late, as he had to take his exam. I came to know about the incident on Monday morning.”
