Prerana was shot dead on December 2, 1996, in the early morning by unknown people in the compound of her house. The police arrested the father for the murder.

Prasad spent 66 days in jail. His employers, following the rules, suspended him. Even after two-and-a-half years, the police has not submitted a chargesheet in the case. However, while granting Prasad bail, Patna High Court observed that the prosecution had failed to establish the father's motive for murdering his daughter.

Rajendra, on bail, is unable to rejoin work and is spending sleepless nights. His only fault was that he stood up to the investigating police official and challenged his motives. The police, from the beginning has been avoiding nabbing the murderers, while the victim's family and neighbours havecome to know their identity.

Prasad's wife, Rani Azad, a senior professor of chemistry in Magadh Mahila College, alleged that the police did not use a dog nor did they lift fingerprints after the murder. Instead, they took a statement from the servant that the pistol allegedly used for the murder belonged to the family.Interestingly, the High Court order points out that no adverse circumstances have been mentioned ``except recovery of a countrymade pistol which does not appear to have been used in the crime.'' The parents plan to file a PIL before the High Court asking it to direct the state police to trace the killers. The Bihar Pradeshik Marwari Sammelan president, Jagdish Mohanka, in the wake of the Shilpi Jain and Gautam killings, has pointed out a number of such incidents where the accused have not yet been arrested in a letter to the Governor. Mohanka requested him to direct the police to trace the absconders and arrest the killers.

Mohanka plans to approach the High Court to direct the police toproduce all the kidnapped persons before it. He said that, in July, at least six people were kidnapped for ransom. He sought to know where five-year old Ankit Jhunjhunwala was. He was kidnapped in Bhagalpur early July. Ajay Sarawagi of Darbhanga, Sant Kumar Gupta of Danapur, Dr Birendra Prasad of Biharsharif are still untraced. They were all kidnapped in July. Quite disgusted with the functioning of the Patna police, for the first time the quiet trading community has decided to arm itself.

Mohanka said the police has been hand-in-glove with the criminals. This is why it failed to prevent Pradip Dokania of Purnea and Sushil Agrawal of Muzzaffarpur from being killed.

Mohanaka has also set a 15-day deadline for the government to produce the kidnap victims, failing which the trading community will resort to direct action. Calling upon the community to fight unitedly against the police design, he urged them to refuse donations to the police and political parties. The Sammelan has given a call to businessmen topull down their shutters in their own interests. In future, they will not respond to the call of any organisation. Mohanka also said, ``Don't bribe any officer. Anyone trying to extort a bribe must he exposed.''

Meanwhile, when contacted the Patna police DIG refused to admit that his men had failed to locate the actual killers. In fact, he said the police had been devoting quite a lot of time on the case, in the process neglecting other important cases simply because of pressure from the trading community.