One held for SBI official’s murder

Patna police claimed to have solved the murder of cashincharge of the State Bank of India (SBI), Patliputra branch, James Michael Sextus, 57, with the arrest of Manoj Pathak alias Akshay Kumar Singh from a Sasaram guesthouse.

Sextus was shot dead on a Thursday afternoon by a lone armed anti-social, who slipped into the bank building and managed to escape after carrying out the operation. Sextus was believed to have fallen a victim of mistaken identity

With the police after him, Manoj changed his complete identity to escape attention. “He managed to secure a his fresh driving licence, domicile certificate, school leaving certificate, voter identity card and other documents forged in the name of Akshay Kumar Singh to dodge the police,” said Patna SSP Amrit Raj. The SSP said, Manoj’s name surfaced in the murder within a couple of days and raids were carried out in Danapur, Aurangabad and other suspected places to nab him, but he was hard to catch. “He did not have any contact with his family members during the period,” he added.

Police had information that Manoj was a drug addict. “Some medicines were also recovered from the guesthouse where he was nabbed from. The same medicines were also recovered from the bank where Manoj had inadvertently left his bag,” the SSP said.

A graduate from a Gaya college, Manoj was into contract business and had recently applied for abank loan to purchase a Bolero vehicle. “In connection with the loan, he had got in touch with Sextus, who assured to help him. However, due to procedures, the sanction of loan was getting delayed, which angered him,” the SSP said.

On the fateful day when Manoj went to meet Sextus, the bank officer, finding the documents missing, lost his cool and asked him to leave the room. “Angry, he left, but only to return after a little while to threaten the bank official. When the arguments got heated, Manoj fired at Sextus,” the SSP said.

Amrit Raj said, search was on for two other relatives - Ashok Pathak and Ravi Pratyush - who helped Manoj flee from Patna.

“We have also detected the place from where he managed to buy the weapon. The supplier would also be arrested soon,” he added.