A court in West Bengal's Barasat on Monday remanded three men arrested in connection with the murder of Chandranath Rath, former Personal Assistant (PA) and close aide of West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, to 13 days of police custody.
The Court sent them to custody till May 24 after a Special Investigation Team (SIT) informed that custodial interrogation of the accused was necessary to uncover the “larger conspiracy” behind the killing and identify the local masterminds who allegedly commissioned the attack.
The accused - Mayank Raj Mishra, Vicky Maurya and Raj Singh - were arrested by the SIT from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh and produced before the court on Monday.
The case relates to the fatal shooting of Rath on the night of May 6 in the Madhyamgram area of North 24 Parganas.
According to the FIR registered at Madhyamgram Police Station, Rath, a 41-year-old former Indian Air Force personnel, was travelling in a Mahindra Scorpio when his vehicle was intercepted by a silver Nissan Micra and two motorcycles.
The FIR alleged that multiple rounds were fired at Rath from close range using an Austrian-made Glock 47X pistol. Rath was declared dead on arrival at a nearby hospital, while his driver, Buddhadeb Bera, sustained injuries in the attack.
The accused have been booked under Sections 103(1) (murder), 111(2)(a) (organised crime), 61(1) (criminal conspiracy), 126(2) (wrongful restraint) and 3(5) (common intention) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, along with Sections 25 and 27 of the Arms Act.
The SIT told the court that investigators were able to trace the accused after what officials described as a “technical blunder” committed during their escape.
According to the prosecution, while fleeing towards the interstate border, the suspects crossed the Bally toll plaza on Nivedita Setu, where one of the occupants allegedly made a toll payment through a Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transaction.
Police said the digital transaction helped investigators trace a mobile number linked to accused Mayank Raj Mishra. Investigators then analysed CCTV footage from the toll plaza which confirmed the identities of the occupants and revealed that the vehicle used in the crime carried a cloned registration plate linked to a car registered in Siliguri.
The SIT subsequently arrested Mishra and Maurya from Buxar in Bihar and Singh from Ballia in Uttar Pradesh.
During the hearing, the Public Prosecutor submitted that recovery of the murder weapon and identification of the local planners behind the killing were crucial aspects of the ongoing probe.
The defence counsel opposed the plea for police custody and sought judicial custody instead, arguing that the arrests were based largely on circumstantial electronic evidence.
However, the Court found merit in the SIT’s submissions that further interrogation was necessary to establish the alleged link between the shooters and the persons who had allegedly orchestrated the attack from Kolkata.
Rath and Adhikari had worked closely for more than 13 years, including during Adhikari’s stint in the Trinamool Congress before his move to the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Following the killing, Adhikari described the incident as a premeditated political murder and a revenge act linked to the recent assembly election results.