Barasat murder accused does a U-turn, claims innocence

KOLKATA: Chandan Ray, the "prime accused" in the murder of 16-year-old Rajib Ghosh in Barasat, has retracted from his earlier statement made to the police and claimed that he is innocent.Investigators are yet to find any corroborativeevidence which can indicate that he is misleading them or telling the truth.Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Thursday told reporters at Writers' Buildings that one person has been arrested. "He is the main accused. CID is investigating the case. More arrests are likely," he said. However, with history-sheeter Chandan's flip-flop and Rinku's dilemma in identifying the main accused who had killed her brother and molested her investigations have hit a wall. "The only lead which the investigators are pursuing are thetwo other names which Chandan had given to police after his arrest. These twopersons are known local criminals and efforts are on to track them. We expect anearly breakthrough... Only after they are interrogated can we establish whetherChandan's statement made to us is right or wrong," said a CIDofficer.CID officers, who had been visiting the place of occurrencein their attempt to track down any other witness who can identify the accused,have drawn a blank.