Koda in a spot on Shree Leathers murder

More than three months have elapsed since the murder of Shree Leathers co-owner Ashish Dey in broad daylight at Sakchi area in the steel city, Jamshedpur, but the Jharkhand police have not been able to make any breakthrough in the murder investigation and this has landed state chief minister Madhu Koda in a spot.

Dey was gunned down by motorcycle borne assailants on November 2 last year. Chief minister Koda, under pressure from business chambers and the opposition, went out of his way to inform reporters on February 17 at Jamshedpur that there was no political pressure on Jamshedpur police team investigating the murder of Dey.

This was in response to a growing rumour in the city that Dey's murder investigation was not being pursued seriously. Chief minister Koda said there was no interference from the government in the murder case investigation in any way.

"The culprits, no matter how big and influential they are, would not be spared", he announced.

However, the speculation here in the Tate Steel city was that after the arrest of a city hotel owner a few days ago in connection with the murder of Dey, a top politician in the ruling coalition stepped forward to announce he was close to the hotel owner, and ensured no investigation against that person was carried out.

The shoe baron's murder case was raised in the first day of the winter session of the Jharkhand Assembly by the leader of the opposition and former chief minister, Arjun Munda of the BJP.

Representatives of Singhbhum Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Small Industries Association and Adityapur Small Industries Association met the chief minister on December 13 in Jamshedpur and requested him to hand over the murder probe to CBI as the state police had failed to make any breakthrough in the case.

The lack of progress on the murder was another proof of the incompetence of the Koda administration and added to the decision of the Congress to remove him from sooner rather than later, a top Congress leaders said in Kolkata.

While members of Dey's larger family in Kolkata refused to comment, shoe industry sources here said co-operating with the state police was often a problem because of links between some rogue elements in the police force and extortionists who call the shots in Jharkhand and more so in the hinterland of centres of affluence like Jamshedpur city in a state in which many district are outside any administrative control and partially under Naxalite domination.