It has been for more than a week since the murder of 65 -year -old Gopal Khemek, a well -known industrialist in Patna, the capital of Bihar. There is still a constant stream of relatives, friends, people from the business community and politicians who visit the house to comfort family members.
4th July at 23:37 Gopal was shot in front of his house near Ramgoool Chowk, upmarket area in Patna. A person transmitted by a bike shot him 9 mm gun at an empty extent when Goopal was still in the car. The police reported the first information report on Gopala’s younger son Gaurav Khemek that night.
Three days later, the police arrested the shooter Umesh Yadav (48) from his house in Males, an older area in the pile with narrow stripes leading to Ganz. Police claim that Yadav was hired by another businessman Ashok Sao (70 years) who allegedly killed Gopal after a land dispute.
Another key suspicious Vikas, 30 years old, aka Raja, was killed when shooting with the police in an abandoned brick furnace in the Patna Damaria Ghat in the first hours of July 8, half a kilometer from his house. Currently, more than a dozen suspects have been detained and questioning is being done, let’s say the Patna police.
From the shooting, Khemek’s family did not talk to the media. Gopal’s cousin Vivek Khemek (45) says: “The police have already said that more people are being arrested. We have lost a family member. We are breaking.”
This is the second member of Khemek’s family, who was killed similarly. In December 2018, Gunjan Khemka, then 39, the oldest child of Goopal, was shot in his car in the industrial area of Hajipur in Patnu, where the family has a surgical unit for the production of cotton. It was also reportedly above the land dispute around the biscuit factory, located on the Hajipur-Mahu road.
Gopal survived his wife Avita, 58; his daughter Garima, who lives in Scotland; and Gaurav, 36 years old to take care of business. July 6. Gopal’s body was cremated in Gulbi Ghat.
Family ties
Gopal, one of the eight children, was born in the Marwar’s business family and grew up in a heat. He went to High School Sir Ganesh Dutt Patliputra and graduated from the title B.com at Vanijya Mahavidyalaya in Patna. In 1985, GK Cotton Private Limited founded surgical cotton and cartons.
The deceased entrepreneur GoPal Khemek. | Photo Credit: File Photos
According to family sources in 1990, he opened his first Aushadhi Medico chemists before Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) on Ashok Rajpath. Later he expanded his business to a rice mill, a petrol pump and real estate. Until 2010, he was also a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) business cell.
That year he opened the Magadh Hospital in Rajendra Nagar and offered health care with more specialization. By 2020, however, the hospital was closed. Currently, Hospital Mediversal rents spaces for their children’s and adolescent gynecological departments.
The main hospital was where Gopal would have been in the night when his family heard shots from their residence on the sixth floor of the apartment building of Qataruka Niwas. Police claim that Gopal had a daily routine of the Bankipore guest club, located near the collectors of Patna and shot down several kilometers in his Brown Hyundai i20 to spend time with his friends.
He was a former club secretary and was also part of Rotary International. On his social media account GoPal published pictures of himself who met different people. Sources say it would also interact with the best BJP leadership in the state.
When he arrived in his apartment and put in front of the gate, the man was waiting near the parking space, wearing his helmet, pulling himself near the car and shooting and keeping his pistol near the window. Gopal died a single bullet, although two more were fired according to the police.
Shankar Khemka, a relative, says, “The police were informed immediately but took an hour and a half to get to the place.” The crime occurred only 250 meters from the Gandhi Maidan police station and less than 200 meters from the official residence of the Patna District Municipality. The police claim that they first went to the hospital and then to the crime.
The investigation begins
After the murder, a special investigation team (SIT) was created under the leadership of the Bihar Police and the investigation was started.
Bihar CEO (DGP) Vinay Kumar told the press at the police headquarters four days after killing that a special working group (STF) and Patna police studied shots of 57 CCTV cameras to catch the shooters. The police also received 3.5 ₹ Lakh from their house, he said.
“When people in the area were asked about the owner of the motorcycle, it was found to belong to Umesh Yadav,” Kumar said. According to a neighbor Yadav, he operated the company renting generators for parties and other social functions. “When his house was searched, shirts, shoes, helmet, mask that was worn at the time of the incident was obtained. During the intensive UMESH YADAV, he accepted the murder of Goopal Khemek,” Kumar said.
Yadav hid the weapon and the remaining bullets on the first floor of his house, Kumar added. When the room was searched on the first floor, 56 wheels were restored 7.62 mm of live cartridges, one 9 mm pistol, two magazines and 14 bullets.
Police claim that Yadav was promised for murder 4 lakh, with 50,000 GBP and the remaining £ 3.5, which gave the day after killing. Most of the advance was used by – 42,000 GBP – paid the waiting school fees of his daughter.
A car in which Gopal Khemek was when he was shot 4 July | Photo Credit: File Photos
Yadav met with Sao in Bihar Sharif, about 80 km from Patna, a year and a half ago at the wedding and began to do special work for him. About one and a half months ago, Sao Yadava asked to arrange a shooter and a weapon to kill Goopal. Police claim that SAO has bought two mobile phones; He held one and gave one Yadav. However, both SIM cards were in the name of Yadava.
“Yadav was then contacted by Vikas aka Raja from his area, which has many cases of violations of murder, robbery and weapons law registered against him,” said the Senior Police of Patna Kartikey Sharma.
He added: “Raja demanded 4 lakh.
Before the murder, Yadav caused Gopal’s house and marked his routine to go to the club and then throw his friend home in Bakarganj before he returned home. The police revealed that when the SIT team arrived at the club, they found that the CCTV installed were not working. The police announced the club on this matter.
Yadav told the police where Sao lived, and when the police attacked the house, she received 6.5 lakh, pistols, 17 living cassettes, piles of ground documents and other objects.
According to the police, Yadav has no criminal record. Sao, who has iron production, was suspected of two murders, one of the entrepreneur in 2002 and another of the transporter in 2009, but there was no evidence against him. In 2006, Sao, who moved to Patna 20 years ago, went to prison during the murder of an entrepreneur in Bihar Sharif, where he is.
Will in Bihar
The police did not deny the connection between Kheme and the murder of his son. “In that case, the police arrested four people,” says Kumar, who was in the criminal investigation department. “One of the accused, Abhishek aka ointment, was murdered when he was released from prison. The court is going on and another hearing is 15 July,” Kumar said.
Raja parents, Shanti Devi and Pradeep Prasad live in insufficiently developed areas of Males. It is said that their son worked as a worker in Chennai and returned a week before. When the police appeared on July 7 in the morning to ask him, “He slept. They also searched our house and asked Raja to reduce and bathe. Then they took him. We heard the next we were shot at a police meeting,” says Devi.
Sharma claims that during the interrogation of Raja he revealed that he had hid the weapon in the brick closing factory. “The police team went with him. After he got a weapon, he started shooting at the police team and was shot in retaliation. He was transported to the government hospital, where he was declared dead,” Sharma said, adding he had 10 cases against him.
Police staff in an abandoned brick furnace, where he was crucial in the murder of industrialist Goopal Khemek killed during a shootout with the police. | Photo Credit: File Photos
In 1999, the criminals launched fire on his older brother Gopal Vijay Khemek when he was in a medicine store but survived. In 2016, someone started fire for younger son Goopal, but escaped.
In both cases, the family did not register a police complaint. After the murder of his older son, he had Goopal 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 house Khemek to meet his family. He criticized the Bihar government over law and order. Representatives were also visited by the main ministers of Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha. The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Partner Chirag Paswan, who leads the Party of Lok Janshakti (RAM Vilas) and who is in the alliance with the ruling party, also emerged from the Bihar government.
The President of the Bihar Industries Association KPS Keshri says this murder will have a negative impact on Bihar businesses. “Several potential investors in Bihar called me to ask about the incident. They asked if the situation in Bihar worse on the law and order.” Entrepreneur and National Vice -Chairman of the Confederation of All Indian Traders Kamal Nopani, based in Patno, says: “This incident shaken the whole community of business and merchant.” Many traders asked for weapons licenses due to the high level of Bihar crime. Ravi Gupta, 38, from the Nawada district, is one such person. “Our family has been in cement and steel in the last three decades. About 50 people are working under me,” he said, adding that it was more a year since he applied for a license but still does not have it.
In April, Bihar revealed that from 1 January to 7 April 2025, in cases of murder, the murder was arrested up to 1632 people, while 947 was arrested on attacks on police staff.
Amit.bhelari@thehind.co.in
Edit Sunalini Mathew
