Sitaram Prasad, a 71 years old BJP leader cum social worker was found murdered in Radhepur village which falls under the Muzaffarpur district in Bihar. The reports have claimed that the veteran leader was beaten to death and his body was thrown into a maize field.
According to Sitaram’s son, the BJP leader had left his home at about 6:00 PM on Sunday. When he didn’t come back by 9 PM, a search party was sent out to locate him. It was at about 5 AM on Monday that some villagers located his body at a Maize field not very far from his home. Various parts of his body were found to bear bruise marks and blood stains.
After hearing this news, Sitaram’s eldest son Ranjan Prasad, who is also a BJP member, lodged a case against unknown assailants. The police too soon reached the spot and sent the body for a postmortem.
A crowd too gathered in the region. After the murder, the situation in the region has become tense, with local people being angered by the incident. The family too has questioned the police for not arresting anyone in connection with the murder.
Incidentally the people have also failed to ascertain a possible motive for Sitaram’s murder. According to his younger son Pawan Kumar, Sitaram didn’t have any enmity with anyone in the village. He was also not very active in politics recently, possibly owing to his illness for which he had gone to Delhi for treatment. The reports also claimed that Sitaram used to be considered a kind person who was also respected by his political opponents.
Sitaram was considered one of the senior leaders in the region and as a result people started to swarm to his home. Even senior politicians including, MLA Rajiv Kumar, BJP leader Ajay Kumar paid a visit. In the past Sitaram used to be a part of the JDU but he had switched to the BJP during the last assembly elections.
Sitaram a prosperous farmer, is survived by his wife, 4 sons and 1 daughter. Two of his sons are garment traders and one is a farmer. His youngest son is a teacher in a government school and his daughter is married. Incidentally Sitaram’s 3 sisters had arrived to his home for Rakshabandhan festivities but were instead hit by this tragedy.
It remains to be seen if Sitaram’s murder has anything to do with the turbulent political situation which has currently engulfed Bihar, as a result of CM Nitish Kumar switching over to the NDA and forming a coalition government with the BJP. This manoeuvre has substantially angered the former allies of Nitish.
