Vikassheel Insan Party (VIP) chief and former minister Mukesh Sahani’s father, Jitan Sahani, was hacked to death by unidentified criminals in Bihar on the intervening night of Monday and Tuesday, leading to widespread condemnation of the deteriorating law and order situation in the state.

The brutal murder of Jitan, 70, took place at his unfinished two-storeyed house at his native Supaul Bazar village in Biraul sub-division of Darbhanga district, about 150km from Patna. He was stabbed and hacked multiple times with a sharp-edged weapon in his room on the ground floor of the house.

Mukesh, a Bollywood set-designer-turned-politician who had served as the minister for animal husbandry and fisheries in Bihar and christened himself as the “Son of Mallah” (son of a boatman), was in Mumbai for work when the incident occurred. He reached Patna late Tuesday afternoon and had started for his native place.

Sources in the police said that the people detained for questioning included a milkman and a woman cook. Three used glasses kept on a table have been found in Jitan’s room, indicating that he could have known the killers.

Neighbours and relatives entered the house at 8am on Tuesday after there was no response from Jitan and found his body drenched in blood. The intestines and eyes had come out because of the attack.

The police found a red steel safe from a plot near the house, apparently left behind because it was too heavy to carry. Its contents are unknown but can lend an angle of robbery to the crime. A motorcycle was also parked near the house with no claimant in sight.

“I spoke to chief minister Nitish Kumar, Union home minister Amit Shah, RJD chief Lalu Prasad and several well-wishers. I have requested Nitishji to take cognizance of the matter and ensure the killers are punished. He has assured me that the people involved will not be spared. I am now going to Darbhanga,” Mukesh told reporters at Patna airport.

Though a couple of people visited him in the morning and evening for household chores and to cook food, Jitan mostly lived alone in the house.

“We have formed a special investigation team. The Darbhanga rural superintendent of police will lead it. We have detained two people based on suspicious activities captured by a CCTV camera in the vicinity of the deceased’s house. They are being interrogated,” Bihar police additional director-general (headquarters) J.S. Gangwar told reporters in Patna.

Claiming to represent the fishermen community, Mukesh had sided with the INDIA bloc in the Lok Sabha elections and campaigned with RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav in around 200 rallies across Bihar. His party contested three seats but did not win any.

“The reign of terror has been established in the state. I have been saying that the morale of criminals patronised by this double-engine Bihar government is so high that they can kill anybody, anywhere in whatever manner they want to,” Tejashwi said.