Body of a 72-year-old Indian advocate from Ara town in Bhojpur district of Bihar, who had gone missing on Wednesday, has been found stuffed in a sack and dumped in a drain by the side of Patna-Buxar road, police said on Saturday.
The victim, Hari Ji Gupta, also owned a number of jewellery shops in Ara and in state capital Patna.
Anil Kumar Singh, the station house officer (SHO) of Ara town police station, said one Ritesh Kumar has been arrested in connection with the murder.
In a police complaint lodged a day after Gupta went missing, his family had expressed fears that he could have been abducted because of an ongoing rent dispute he had with the tenants of shops he owned in Ara, police said.
The FIR had named five persons, including Ritesh Kumar, police said.
The incident had led to an outrage in the town.
Rakesh Kumar Mishra, president of Ara Bar Association, blamed police inaction and demanded suspension of senior police officers.
Union minister and Lok Sabha MP from Ara, R K Singh, who visited the family earlier on Saturday, said incidents of crime had spiked ever since Nitish Kumar joined hands with RJD in August. “It is reflected every day. If it is not controlled, ‘jungle raj ’ will return. Whenever the crime graph shoots, the business community is targeted for extortion money,” Singh said.
Leader of opposition in state assembly, Vijay Kumar Sinha, and Ara MLA and former agriculture minister Amrendra Pratap Singh were also scheduled to visit the family in the evening.
