A shot in the dark

It has been more than a week since the murder of 65-year-old Gopal Khemka, an well-known industrialist in Patna, Bihar’s capital. There is still a steady stream of relatives, friends, people from the business community, and politicians visiting the house to console family members.

On July 4, at 11.37 p.m., Gopal was shot dead outside his house, near Ramgoolam Chowk, an upmarket area in Patna. The bike-borne person shot him with a 9-mm pistol at point blank range when Gopal was still in his car. The police lodged a first information report that night on the complaint of Gopal’s younger son Gaurav Khemka.

Three days later, the police arrested the shooter Umesh Yadav, 48, from his house at Malsalami, an older area in Patna with narrow lanes that lead to the Ganga. The police say Yadav was hired by another businessman, Ashok Sao, 70, who allegedly had Gopal killed over a land dispute.

Another key suspect Vikas, 30, alias Raja, was killed in a gunfight with the police at an abandoned brick kiln in Patna’s Damaria Ghat area in the early hours July 8, half a kilometre away from his house. At present, more than a dozen suspects have been detained and questioning is under way, say the Patna police.

Since the shooting, the Khemka family have not spoken to the media. Gopal’s cousin Vivek Khemka, 45, says, “The police have already said that the investigation is under way and more people will be arrested. We have lost a family member. We are shattered.”

This is the second member of the Khemka familywho has been killed similarly. In December 2018, Gunjan Khemka, then 39, Gopal’s oldest child, was shot in his car in Patna’s Hajipur industrial area, where the family has a surgical cotton manufacturing unit. That too was allegedly over a land dispute around a biscuit factory, located on the Hajipur-Mahua road.

Gopal is survived by his wife Avita, 58; his daughter Garima, who lives in Scotland; and Gaurav, 36, who looks after the business. On July 6, Gopal’s body was cremated at Gulbi Ghat.

Family ties

Gopal, one of eight children, was born into a Marwari business family, and grew up in Patna. He went to Sir Ganesh Dutt Patliputra High School and graduated with a B.Com degree from Vanijya Mahavidyalaya, in Patna. In 1985, he founded G.K. Cotton Private Limited to manufacture surgical cotton and cartons.

According to family sources, in 1990, he opened his first chemist shop, Aushadhi Medico, in front of Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) on Ashok Rajpath. Later, he expanded his business into a rice mill, a petrol pump, and real estate. He was also a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Business Cell till 2010.

That year, he opened Magadh Hospital in Rajendra Nagar locality, offering multi-specialty healthcare. However, by 2020, the hospital was closed. At present, Mediversal Hospital rents the premises for their Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology ward.

The main hospital was where Gopal would be taken the night his family heard gunshots from their residence on the sixth floor of the Kataruka Niwas apartment block. The police say Gopal had a daily routine of visiting Bankipore Club, located near the Patna Collectorate, driving down a couple of kilometres in his brown Hyundai i20 to spend time with his friends.

He was the former secretary of the club and was also a part of Rotary International. On his social media account, Gopal posted pictures of himself meeting a variety of people. Sources say he would also interact with top BJP leadership in the State.

When he reached his apartment and honked outside the gate, a man on the bike waiting near the parking area, wearing a helmet, drew up near the car and fired, keeping the pistol close to the window. Gopal died with a single bullet, though two more were fired, as per the police.

Shankar Khemka, a relative, says, “The police were informed immediately, but they took an hour and a half to reach the spot.” The crime took place just 250 metres from the Gandhi Maidan police station and less than 200 metres from the Patna district magistrate’s official residence. The police claim they first went to the hospital and then to the crime spot.

Investigations begin

Following the murder, a Special Investigative Team (SIT) was formed under the direction of the Bihar Police Headquarters and the investigation was started.

Bihar Director General of Police (DGP) Vinay Kumar told the press at the police headquarters four days after the killing that the Special Task Force (STF) and the Patna police had studied footage from 57 CCTV cameras to catch the shooter. The police also recovered ₹3.5 lakh from his house, he said.

“When the people around were questioned about the owner of the motorcycle, it was found that it belonged to Umesh Yadav,” Kumar said. According to a neighbour, Yadav ran a business of renting out generators for parties and other social functions. “When his house was searched, the shirt, shoes, helmet, mask worn at the time of the incident were recovered. During the intensive interrogation, Umesh Yadav accepted murdering Gopal Khemka,” Kumar said.

Yadav had hidden the weapon and remaining bullets on the first floor of his house, Kumar added. When the room on the first floor was searched, 56 rounds of 7.62-mm live cartridges, one 9-mm pistol, two magazines, and 14 bullets were recovered.

The police say Yadav was promised ₹4 lakh for the murder, with ₹50,000 advance and the remaining ₹3.5 lakh given by Sao the day after the killing. He used most of the advance — ₹42,000 — to pay his daughter’s pending school fees.

Yadav met Sao in Bihar Sharif, about 80 km from Patna, a year and a half ago at a wedding, and began to do odd jobs for him. About one and a half months ago, Sao asked Yadav to arrange for a shooter and weapon to kill Gopal. The police say Sao bought two mobile phones; he kept one and gave one to Yadav. Both SIM cards were in Yadav’s name though.

“Yadav then contacted Vikas alias Raja, from his area, who has many cases of murder, robbery, and Arms Act violations registered against him,” the Patna Senior Superintendent of Police Kartikey Sharma said.

He added, “Raja demanded ₹4 lakh. Yadav thought he would do it himself and take the money. Sao gave him a 9-mm pistol, two magazines, and 18 bullets. Gopal Khemka’s photo and vehicle registration number were provided.”

Before the murder, Yadav recced Gopal’s house and noted his routine of going to the club and then dropping his friend home at Bakarganj before returning home. The police revealed that when the SIT team reached the club, they found that the CCTVs installed were not working. The police have served a notice to the club in the matter.

Yadav told the police where Sao lived, and when the police raided the house they recovered ₹6.5 lakh in cash, a pistol, 17 live cartridges, piles of land documents, and other items.

According to the police, Yadav has no criminal record. Sao, who has an iron manufacturing business, had been suspected in two murders, one of a businessman in 2002, and another of a transporter in 2009, but there was no evidence against him. In 2006, Sao, who shifted to Patna 20 years ago, had gone to jail in the murder of a businessman in Bihar Sharif, where he is from.

Backlash in Bihar

Police did not deny the link between Khemka and his son’s murder. “In that case, the police had arrested four people,” says Kumar, who was in the Criminal Investigation Department then. “One of the accused, Abhishek alias Mastu, was murdered when he was released from jail. The trial is going on and the next hearing is on July 15,” Kumar said.

Raja’s parents, Shanti Devi and Pradeep Prasad, live in the under-developed Malsalami area. They say their son used to work as a labourer in Chennai and had returned a week before. When the police showed up on the morning of July 7 to ask for him, “He was sleeping. They also searched our house and asked Raja to have breakfast and take a bath. Then they took him. The next we heard, he had been shot dead in a police encounter,” Devi says.

Sharma claims that during the interrogation Raja had revealed that he had hidden the weapon in a shut-down brick-kiln factory. “The police team went with him to the spot. However, after getting the weapon, he started firing on the police team and in the retaliatory firing, he was shot. He was taken to a government hospital where he was declared dead,” Sharma says, adding that he had 10 cases against him.

In 1999, criminals had opened fire on Gopal’s older brother Vijay Khemka, when he was at his medicine shop, but he had survived. In 2016, someone had opened fire on Gopal’s younger son, but he had escaped.

In both cases, the family did not register a police complaint. After the murder of his older son, Gopal had bodyguards from the police, but this was withdrawn in April 2024. The police are investigating its cause.

The Leader of the Opposition, Tejashwi Yadav, went to the Khemka home to meet the family. He criticised the Bihar government over law and order. Deputy Chief Ministers Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha also visited the family. National Democratic Alliance (NDA) partner Chirag Paswan who heads the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), and who is in alliance with the ruling party, lashed out at the Bihar government too.

Bihar Industries Association president K.P.S. Keshri says this murder will have a negative impact on businesses in Bihar. “A few potential investors in Bihar called me to enquire about the incident. They asked whether the situation is getting worse in Bihar on the law and order front.” Patna-based businessman and national vice-president of the Confederation of All India Traders Kamal Nopani, says, “This incident has shaken the entire business and trader community.” Many traders have applied for arms licences given Bihar’s high crime rate. Ravi Gupta, 38, of Nawada district, is one such person. “Our family has been into the business of cement and steel for the last three decades. I have around 50 people working under me,” he says, adding that it has been more a year since he has applied for a licence, but still hasn’t got it.

In April, the Bihar police revealed that between January 1 and April 7, 2025, up to 1,632 people had been arrested in murder cases across the State, while 947 had been apprehended for attacks on police personnel.

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Edited by Sunalini Mathew