Prof killing agitates people

Patna: A sense of shock, anger and disbelief prevails among teachers, students as well as the residents of Naya Tola area here following the cold-blooded killing of Prof Shailendra Dhari Singh, former head of the department of English of Patna College and a member of the Patna University senate.
Prof Singh was shot dead at his "Dharhara Kothi" residence in the Naya Tola area on Sunday evening by a group of four persons who had come to talk about the sale of his ancestral land at Sikandara village near Bihta.Two of them had taken a prior appointment from Prof Singh. After a brief talk, the two were joined in by two others who shot him dead.
"He was very affable, liked by the old and the young alike. He never quarrelled with anybody. That anybody would kill him is unbelievable," said Raj Singh, a close relative of Prof Singh. Hundreds of people thronged the professor''s house on Sunday and Monday after getting the news of his murder.
"Prima facie the killing appears to be linked to the sale of land as he (Prof Singh) was about to dispose of some village land for which negotiations were on," Raj Singh said.
His views were corroborated by Prof Singh''s son Rudrank Dhari Sinha who wondered "whether it will really serve the killers'' purpose."
Sources said bids had been made on several occasions in the past to grab Prof Singh''s ancestral village land. Some persons had been on the lookout for him for the last several months and had phoned regularly during his stay in the UK asking about his whereabouts. "Destiny brought him here from England much earlier than scheduled as he was expected to return after November 3," said Rudrank, a lawyer.
In protest against the murder, students of Patna University blocked the Ashok Rajpath for several hours near BN College. The Patna University Teachers'' Association condemned the incident and appealed to the police to act in right earnest and nab the criminals at the earliest. The association''s president J Thakur and secretary Amar Nath Singh threatened to resort to agitation if the police fail to act promptly.
Quoting the statement of his wife Sadhana Singh, the police said that two persons who had first come to Prof Singh''s residence at about 6 pm were unknown faces.
According to town DSP R K Dubey, Prof Singh''s wife has stated that the assailants looked like villagers. A police team was sent to Sikandara and Dharhara villages on Monday to investigate if any land dispute was behind Prof Singh''s killing. The case is being investigated from different angles as the killers are yet to be identified, he added. "The family members will be interviewed soon," Dubey said.
"The police are looking into the murder from different angles as three to four cases relating to land dispute are still pending in court," a top police official said on condition of anonymity, adding that former managers of Prof Singh''s farms are also to be interrogated.