Just three days before his wedding, twenty-year-old Neeraj Hajra of Shibdih village in Jharkhand's Giridih district vanished without a trace on July 5, throwing his family's wedding preparations into chaos. What began as a missing person case soon turned into a kidnapping investigation, and the trail eventually led investigators to a body recovered from Bela forest in Bihar's Jamui district, later identified as Neeraj's. Police say Neeraj's fiancee, Urmila Kumari, was allegedly in a relationship with her own brother-in-law, Subhash Paswan, and that the approaching wedding had become an obstacle to that relationship. Investigators allege this was the motive behind a murder conspiracy that ended with Neeraj's body being dumped in the forest.
From disappearance to the discovery of the body
Neeraj Hajra, a resident of Shibdih village under the Jamua police station area, disappeared mysteriously on July 5. When repeated searches by worried family members turned up nothing, they approached the Jamua police station and filed a missing person complaint. As the case developed and suspicious details emerged, police upgraded it to a kidnapping case. Given how sensitive the matter was, the Superintendent of Police ordered a special investigation team to be formed under the leadership of the SDPO of Khorimahua. Using technical evidence and mobile phone location tracking, the team pressed ahead with the investigation. During this process, police recovered the body of an unidentified young man from Bela forest in Bihar's Jamui district. On identification, the body turned out to be that of the missing Neeraj Hajra himself, instantly turning the case from a disappearance into a murder investigation and prompting police to intensify their questioning.
An affair the impending wedding threatened to expose
Based on interrogation and technical evidence, police concluded that a family affair lay at the heart of the killing. According to investigators, Neeraj's fiancee, Urmila Kumari, was allegedly involved in a relationship with Subhash Paswan, who was related to her as her jija, or brother-in-law. Urmila's marriage to Neeraj had already been fixed, but that very wedding had become the biggest hurdle standing between Urmila and Subhash. Police allege that this is why Urmila, Subhash and some of their other associates hatched a plan to eliminate Neeraj. Just three days before the wedding, Neeraj was made to disappear and killed, and to destroy the evidence his body was dumped far from Giridih, in Bela forest in Bihar's Jamui district, in what police believe was an attempt to keep the case from being traced back to them.
Fiancee and brother-in-law arrested, weapons recovered
Once the case was cracked, police arrested both Urmila Kumari and Subhash Paswan. Along with the arrests, investigators recovered a Honda scooty and two knives allegedly used in the crime, which are now being treated as key evidence in the case. Police say the investigation is still ongoing and that the role of other people allegedly involved in the conspiracy is also being examined. The allegations levelled by police will only be finally confirmed once evidence is presented in court and the trial is heard.
