CID begins probe into 2018 death of Suvendu bodyguard

Kolkata/Contai: Bengal CID on Monday took over investigations into the unexplained death of one of

Suvendu Adhikari

’s bodyguards in 2018 and spoke to the wife of the deceased on whose complaint a murder case was lodged in

Contai

, East Midnapore, two days ago.

A senior CID officer said a team from the agency’s homicide wing reached Contai around noon. “We are now investigating the death of

Subhabrata Chakraborty

based on his wife’s police complaint.”

Another officer said: “The complainant was asked why she suspected that her husband’s death was a homicide. We spoke to Contai police about the fresh case and drew up a list of officers who probed the death before this. We will go through the post-mortem report and gradually begin recording statements.”

Incidentally, a few members of this CID team — including the senior officer leading the investigations — are also part of the SIT probing the Sitalkuchi firing on April 10 this year.

Chakraborty (40), a State Armed Police (SAP) jawan, was part of BJP MLA Adhikari’s security detail when the latter was a Trinamool Congress MP. He continued in the squad after Adhikari became a state minister in 2015. Three years later, Chakraborty allegedly shot himself at the Contai police barracks. He was found with a gunshot wound by his colleagues and rushed to a Kolkata hospital, where he died a day later.

Wife Suparna Chakraborty — a primary school teacher and mother of two daughters aged 12 and 9 — recently filed the fresh complaint demanding a murder probe. “Since the FIR has been drawn up against unknown persons, we will probe all angles including professional and personal vendetta,” said an investigator.

In her three-page complaint, Suparna has mentioned that she did not lodge a murder FIR earlier because “Suvendu-babu was a powerful district and state leader, and everyone was scared to speak against them”. In 2018, Adhikari was Bengal’s transport minister.

Suparna has also questioned the “delay” in providing her husband treatment in Kolkata. She said when her brother-in-law raised doubts over autopsy findings, Rakhal Bera — one of Adhikari’s aides now in custody in a fraud case — gagged him.

Adhikari, who is currently Nandigram MLA and leader of the opposition in

Bengal

assembly, had recently reacted to the complaint, saying: “This case is more than two and a half years old. They cannot intimidate me with these (allegations). Legally, whatever needs to be done will be done. To the best of my knowledge, a charge sheet has already been filed in the case.”