CBI to take over Chandranath Rath murder case

Kolkata: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) will take over the investigation into the Chandranath Rath assassination case, officials said on Tuesday.

A 7-member Special Investigation Team (SIT), headed by a DIG-rank officer from the CBI, will conduct the investigation.

The CBI will take over the case from the West Bengal Police later in the day.

Earlier, the Bengal Police had recommended a CBI inquiry into this case.

On Monday, the Bengal Police arrested three sharpshooters from Uttar Pradesh and presented them before a district court in Barasat, North 24 Parganas. The court remanded them to police custody till May 24.

The three were arrested by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the West Bengal Police, which is probing the murder case.

Chandranath Rath, the personal assistant of the current West Bengal Chief Minister, Suvendu Adhikari, was shot dead on May 6 by bike-borne assailants.

It is learnt that 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, sources said.

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. The BJP candidates were declared victors from 207 Assembly constituencies, reducing the erstwhile ruling Trinamool Congress to just 80.

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.

As per the initial investigation, 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.

While Rath died on the spot, his driver, Buddhadeb Bera, was critically injured. Bera, however, is recovering fast.

Later investigation 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.

Adhikari had claimed that Rath would not have been killed had he not been the personal assistant of the person who defeated the former Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee, at Bhabanipur in South Kolkata by a margin of over 15,000 votes.

IANS