WestBengal: Chandranath Rath, the personal assistant to West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, was shot dead on May 6 by bike-borne assailants. Following a cross-state investigation, three sharpshooters were arrested in Uttar Pradesh in connection with the case. They are scheduled to be produced before a district court in Barasat, North 24 Parganas, on Monday.
The three were arrested by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the West Bengal Police, which is probing the case. All three of them will be presented in the district court later in the day, and the public prosecutor will seek their police custody, citing sources in the state police aware of the matter, IANS reported.
The three arrested persons were quietly brought to Kolkata on Sunday night and taken to the state police headquarters of Bhabani Bhavan in South Kolkata. The investigating officials interrogated them throughout the night, further reported, citing sources.
Chandranath Rath murder case
Rath was murdered on the night of May 6, just two days after the results of the West Bengal Assembly elections were declared on May 4.
As Rath was on his way back home at Madhyamgram in North 24 Parganas district from a party programme on May 6 night, his vehicle was stopped at a particular crossing by a four-wheeler.
The initial probe indicates that while Rath’s vehicle stopped after getting blocked by the other four-wheeler, one of the two motorcycles that had been shadowing Rath’s vehicle for a long time stopped beside Rath’s vehicle.
An assailant driving that motorcycle shot ten rounds of bullets from a close distance.
Rath died on the spot; his driver, Buddhadeb Bera, was critically injured.
Later investigation further revealed that the number plates of that four-wheeler, which blocked Rath’s vehicle as well as the two motorcycles used in the assassination, were fake.
Car used by miscreants brought from Jharkhand
The investigators reportedly indicated that the car used in the murder was brought from Jharkhand, and money was sent online from that car.
According to the police, the plan to kill Chandranath had been hatched at least a month and a half ago.
The police confiscated the car used in the murder on the day of the incident.
The number plate on the car is fake, following which two bikes of the miscreants were also recovered. According to the police, the number plates of these bikes are also fake. This was done with the intention of misleading the investigation.
The UPI payment link
The arrests were made after investigating authorities tracked a UPI payment made by the accused at a toll booth in Bali, near Kolkata, according to.
After collecting and scanning CCTV footage from the plaza, police identified a car carrying the three individuals. Because the toll was paid digitally, investigators were able to leverage the transaction data to gather information.
Suvendu Adhikari’s reaction
Adhikari had claimed that Rath would not have been killed had he not been the personal assistant of the person who defeated former Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at Bhabanipur in South Kolkata.
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