‘If they shoot our children like this, Bihar’s mother will be left childless’

Her husband Shyam Sunder Sachdeva, in a state of shock, kept asking for his son, while the victim’s elder brother, Vikas, requested that the media “leave him alone”.

[related-post]

“I have lost Aditya. He will not return to me. But the PM and the CM should do something so that no mother suffers such a tragedy,” said Chand.

Aditya, who celebrated his eighteenth birthday on April 19, was very attached to his mother and never disobeyed her, relatives said.

Devi’s son Rocky is alleged to have shot dead Aditya following a row over overtaking on the Bodhgaya-Gaya road. Rocky, 30, is absconding since the incident. An FIR has been lodged against him, his bodyguard Rajesh Kumar and two others who were reportedly in the car with him at the time of the incident. Police arrested Manorama Devi’s husband Bindi Yadav as well as Kumar on Sunday.

“Our family has been living in Gaya for 65 years. We came from Punjab and settled down here. Aditya’s elder brother handled the family business, but Aditya was not interested in it and wanted to move out of Bihar,” said the victim’s cousin Rishi Sachdeva.

Aditya’s uncle Rajeev Sachdeva said the guilty must be punished to “send a strong message that no one is above the law”.

As the opposition attacked the state government over the incident, Nitish said action would also be against Manorama Devi if she is found to have helped her son escape. He also promised that the guilty would not be spared. Lalu Prasad, chief of the alliance partner RJD, said Rocky’s “arrogance” would not be tolerated.

At Aditya’s home, the family put up a poster saying “we want justice”, while his friends blocked roads to protest against the murder.

Barely two kilometres away in AP Colony, Manorama Devi said, “My son is not an absconder. He will surrender as there is a case against him. I have faith in the judicial system.” Before being sent to jail, Rocky’s father said, “If my son is guilty, he should be punished.”

The Gaya police, meanwhile, set up a special investigation team under Gaya City SP Avkash Kumar. Patna Zonal IG N H Hussain said a team was being sent to check the Delhi-registered Land Rover which Rocky was travelling in. Rocky’s father Bindi Kumar was Monday produced before a Gaya court and remanded in 14-day judicial custody.

WATCH INDIAN EXPRESS VIDEOS HERE