Laloo says the death is a clear case of suicide

Sanjay Khandelwal, Harish's younger brother, says the deceased had been helping the CBI in the investigation and had accepted the fact he could be jailed for his wrongdoings. So, his sudden decision to commit suicide was quite unbelievable. After all, Khandelwal himself had sought time till May 8 from the CBI to furnish more details and submit relevant documents.

Two notices served by the Dhanbad CBI were found in the deceased's pocket. But it was the discovery of two identical suicide notes, soaked in blood, that made the Bureau sit up and take note. Written in Hindi, the notes accused Dhanbad CBI inspector M N P Sinha of "mental and physical torture."

A third copy of the same note was discovered when the police searched Hotel Kunal at Hirapur, where Khandelwal was living with three others. The police say Khandelwal wrote the three notes at the hotel itself, before leaving for the CBI interrogation.

But this version seems to have loopholes aplenty. For instance, how could Khandelwal write a note accusing the CBI of 'torturing' him even before the interrogation? Also, CBI sources insist Khandelwal had never met M N P Sinha, the 'torturer'.

Then, despite the recovery of the CBI notices and the two suicide notes, why could the police not disclose the identity of the dead man for nearly 48 hours? Quite inexplicably, the body was not photographed, and no medical board was constituted.

Some other basic questions remain unanswered as well. When visiting the CBI office at Dhanbad, Khandelwal was said to be wearing brown leather shoes and, according to his three hotel mates, he did not return after that. So, how was Khandelwal's body recovered with 'a pair of white leather slippers' ? Also, according to brother Sanjay, Harish could not move without his 'thick, high-powered spectacles', but no spectacles were found near the body.

While the GRP claims Khandelwal was run over by the Jammu-Tawi Express on May 6 and discovered next morning by gangman Mahato, the residents of Binodnagar, bordering the Baramasia-Dhokhra halt, have a different story to tell. The Jammu-Tawi Express crosses the point at around 5.45 pm, but locals insist that ''a man was run over by the Asansol-Dhanbad passenger train at around 4 pm on May 6."

Baramasia crossing gateman Ram Chandra Roy say he was informed of the "accident" at around 6 pm, just after the Jammu-Tawi Express had passed. Roy also claims he did not inform the east cabin as he had not seen the body himself. But the locals allege the gateman informed the cabin that evening itself. They go on to state that the corpse could not have remained undetected for over 12 hours in as congested an area as the Baramasia crossing.

Ram Chandra Roy, meanwhile, is "on leave" from May 8.

Some of the railway staff have raised questions about the amount of blood on Khandelwal's body -- normally, when a train runs over someone, very little blood flows. "If the head was severed and landed in a nearby bush, how come the trousers and the suicide notes were soaked in blood?" they ask.

At a time when all attention was focused on this 'suicide', Ram Raj Singh, a doctor in the AHD, was killed in a road accident. Dr Singh and his 18-year-old daughter, Pratima, died when a speeding truck rammed into the cycle-rickshaw in which they were travelling, at Chirayantand overbridge, in Patna, on May 15 morning. Strangely, both the truck and the rickshaw-puller are yet to be traced. While Singh did not figure in the list of accused, it is yet to be ascertained whether he had been questioned by the CBI.

For the moment, the CBI is taking a long hard look at the Khandelwal case as it clearly suspects foul play. But the Bihar chief minister says the death is a clear case of suicide and has handed it over to the CID for "routine attention."

Meanwhile, on May 19, the Patna high court division bench, which monitors the probe into the fodder scam, directed Patna CBI Deputy Inspector General R N Kaul to submit a report on the Khandelwal case within two weeks.

The CBI obviously hopes to establish that a terror network is operating to stymie investigations into the scam which finds the biggest names in Bihar politics in the firing line.

Naved Zahir in Patna Kind courtesy: Sunday magazine