Bihar police inquiring into Pritam's death: Nitish

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday said the state police was conducting an in-depth inquiry into the death of an Assam-based student Pritam Bhattacharya whose body was found near Katoriya station in Barauni-Katihar rail section on July 17.

Kumar said he had asked Director General of police Abhayanand to speak to his Assam counterpart on the death of the 25-year-old student who was travelling by the Awadh-Assam Express from Guwahati to New Delhi.

Talking to reporters in Patna, Kumar said the state police department had taken it up as a challenge. The body of Pritam, a resident of Silchar in Assam, was found by the Government Railway Police near a bridge near Katoriya station in the Barauni-Katihar rail section on July 17.

A day earlier he had gone missing after he got down from the Awadh-Assam Express, in which he was travelling, at Naogachiya station to lodge a complaint following a tiff with

some unknown persons inside the the train, the sources said. A case of his kidnapping was registered by his uncle Dada Mohan Bhattachary with the Naogachiya rail police station on July 10.

Police sources said Pritam had been killed and his body thrown on the tracks which was traced on the basis of location of his mobile phone.

Raids were on in the area to apprehend those involved in the case. A medical board was constituted by the authorities to do a postmortem on him, the sources said.