Patna: Four personnel were suspended for alleged negligence in connection with the abduction and murder of Bunty Yadav, whose body was recovered five days after he was kidnapped near Patna Junction. The action was taken by Patna superintendent of police (central) Mamta Kalyani following an internal inquiry into the officers’ conduct on the night of the incident.Those suspended include assistant sub-inspectors (ASIs) Praveen Kumar Pankaj, Awadhesh Kumar and Veer Bahadur Singh, and home guard Sudarshan Prasad. The four have been charged with dereliction of duty after an inquiry found that, despite being stationed barely 100 metres from the kidnapping spot on the night of July 6, they neither detected nor responded to the crime while on Dial 112 duty.Confirming the action, the SP told TOI on Tuesday, “In the kidnapping case, three ASIs and one home guard have been suspended. They were on duty near the railway station when a person was abducted, yet they remained unaware of the incident. This amounts to gross negligence on their part.”During the suspension period, all four have been attached to the New Reserve Police Centre in Patna and have been directed to submit their explanations within three days.Bunty Yadav was abducted near the Mahavir Temple at Patna Junction on July 6. His body was recovered on July 11 from Athmalgola area in Barh subdivision, around 60 km from the place of abduction.According to the postmortem findings, the body bore signs of assault. Bunty’s face was unrecognisable, with severe injuries obscuring his facial features. Injury marks were also found across his body.Meanwhile, Kotwali police arrested two more accused allegedly directly involved in the kidnapping and murder. ASP (law and order-I) Krishna Murari said police arrested Ajit Kumar and Roshan Kumar near Bairiya bus stand while they were trying to flee to Nepal.“After the FIR was lodged, police tracked down all seven accused involved in the crime. Ajit and Roshan escaped to Jaidih after killing Bunty. From there, they kept changing their locations from Deoghar to Kolkata and Patna before returning to Patna to flee towards Nepal. Police arrested them at Bairiya bus stand. So far, five people have been arrested, including three who were directly involved in the crime,” Murari said.The ASP added, “During interrogation, multiple motives behind the kidnapping and murder have come to light, including business disputes, monetary disputes and old rivalry.”
