Mystery prevails regarding the whereabouts of a doctor of Nalanda Medical College Hospital (NMCH) after he allegedly went missing on March 1, near Gandhi setu bridge on the outskirts of the State capital Patna in Bihar.
Dr Sanjay Kumar, head of the pharmacology department, was on his way to inspect a medical college in Muzaffarpur when he reportedly went missing.
Later on, Dr Kumar’s vehicle, his diary, and two cell phones were recovered from Mahatma Gandhi Setu when the police reached the spot for an inspection on March 2.
The Patna police, on March 4, also secured CCTV footage of Dr Sanjay in which he was seen taking a u-turn from pillar no 46 around 7.40; in the footage, Kumar was seen parking his vehicle in Patna Hajipur lane, following which he was walking toward Hajipur by foot.
Earlier, speaking on the development of the case ASP Patna Sadar, Kavya Mishra had said that the police have gone through the CCTV footage in which he can be seen walking alone after parking the vehicle.
Meanwhile, wide-scale search operations were also conducted by the SDRF team from Gaighat to Kacchi Dargah in the Ganges. However, nothing conclusive was found in the attempt; the Bihar police also quizzed some colleagues of Dr Kumar, revealing that Dr Kumar had been depressed for some time.
Earlier, Saloni Kumari, a retired professor and wife of Dr Kumar, had said that “she last spoke to his husband at around 7.42 pm on March 1, when Kumar informed him that he was stuck in a traffic jam and disconnected the call, following which she made several attempts to contact him again though Kumar did not answer her calls.
After waiting a brief time, Saloni Kumari reached the Patrakar Nagar police station and lodged an FIR about the incident; so far, Saloni or any other relative of Dr Kumar has not received any call pertaining to ransom or any other demands.
Earlier, while briefing the media on the development of the case ADG law and order, JS Gangwar had quoted that while the police are probing the matter from all angles so far, there is no clue to establish it to be a case of kidnapping.
Meanwhile, on March 3, the Indian Medical Association (IMA), in a letter to the DGP Bihar had also expressed their concerns over the failure of the police to crack the case; the Bihar unit of the IMA had also expressed their displeasure over the fact that the police had not conducted any forensic examination of the Doctor’s car, the letter also read about the state of the CCTV cameras installed on the bridge as most of them were found to be non-functional during the investigation.
In a similar case, a Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader identified as Sunil Rai was also kidnapped from his residence in the wee hours of March 14; it’s been reported that Rai was going for a morning walk when around 6-7 unidentified masked goons kidnapped him in a Scorpio near his residence under Musaffail police station limits of Saran in Bihar.
Though this time, acting swiftly on the inputs secured from the CCTV footage, the Saran police managed to rescue the abducted RJD leader safely within 24 hours; it’s been learnt that the police have also seized the vehicle in which Rai was kidnapped. Two miscreants involved in the case have also been arrested while the others accused involved in the matter are being hunted, said officials of the police.
It should be noted that the state has a long history of organised kidnapping crimes where numerous Kidnapping related murders have taken place in the past.
