Prime accused arrested in Kolkata students’ murder case

On Wednesday, personnel from the Bidhannagar City Police arrested four persons namely Avijit Basu, Shamim Ali, Sahil Molla and Dipendra Bose.

Kolkata: Satyendra Chowdhury, the prime accused and the mastermind behind the murders of students Atanu De and Abhishek Naskar, was arrested by a joint team of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of West Bengal Police and the detective department (DD) of Bidhannagar City Police form the Howrah station on Friday.
It is the fifth arrest in this connection.

On Wednesday, personnel from the Bidhannagar City Police arrested four persons namely Avijit Basu, Shamim Ali, Sahil Molla and Dipendra Bose.

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CID sources said that they were constantly tracking the location of Chowdhury. However, he was constantly changing his SIM cards and hence it was becoming difficult to track.

Finally, on Thursday night, the CID was tipped off that Chowdhury might make an escape attempt to his native state of Bihar from Howrah station on Friday morning.

Accordingly, plain-cloth cops reached the station.

On Friday morning at around 9.30 a.m., when Chowdhury appeared in front of the ticket counter at Howrah station, he was nabbed by the waiting sleuths.

He is now being taken to the headquarters of Bidhannagar City Police and from there he will be handed over to the CID.

Already the twin murders have left the state police red-faced especially the Bidhannagar City Police and the Baguiati Police Station under it because of the negligence in the matter.

Although the families of the victims reported their abduction on August 22, the Baguiati Police Station registered the FIR and started a probe only after two days.

After a couple of days since the abduction took place, the bodies of the two victims were recovered from Basirhat in North 24 Parganas district and initially they were kept at a local mortuary as unclaimed bodies.

Although the local Basirhat Police Station alerted all police stations of the state about the unclaimed bodies being recovered with pictures, the Baguiati Police station did not react.

The family members alleged that although they informed the local Baguiati Police station about that ransom letter they received, the police did not take the matter seriously.

It is learnt on reaching the state secretariat, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee summoned the state police director general, Manoj Malviya and asked the latter to start a CID probe in the matter. She also asked the state police DGP to take action against police officials who neglected the matter.

Following mass criticisms over alleged police inaction, Banerjee ordered a CBI probe in the matter.

The inspector-in-charge of Baguiati Police station, Kallol Ghosh was suspended. Later the investigation officer in the matter and sub-inspector Baguiati Police station, Pritam Singh was also suspended.