Son of Mithilesh Kumar Singh, a Botany teacher in  JTA College in Mohiuddinagar, Samastipur district, Simant had come here from Bhopal on February 28.

According to his uncle, Dilip Kumar Singh, who is a Mathematics teacher at SNS College, Hajipur, in Vaishali district, at around 6 PM on the fateful evening, two of his local friends, who were his seniors in May Flower School from where he did his Plus-II, and were preparing for competitive examinations, reached his house and Simant left with them. At around 9.30 PM, a local informed them that Simant was being assaulted mercilessly by his friends.

Dilip said he found Simant lying on the staircase of the house belonging to Indal Sah, an employee in Patna Passport office, with blood oozing from his head. He said he found injury marks at several places on Simant’s body.

Dilip said when he asked the four persons on the roof of the house about the reason for assaulting him so mercilessly they replied Rangdari karta tha.

It was Dilip who took Simant to PMCH where he was declared brought dead by the doctors. A case was lodged at the Rajiv Nagar police station against Indal Sah, his two sons Dharmendra Sah and Pintoo Sah, and his nephew Rajesh.

DSP (law & order) L M Sharma said Indal Sah, Dharmendra Sah and Pintoo  Sah were arrested in this connection. He said the local police were investigating the case from different angles.

Sources in police do not rule out the love affair as the cause of murder.