Hitmen hired to kill Suvendu’s aide conducted recce for 72 hours: SIT

KOLKATA: The assailants who fatally shot Bengal BJP functionary Suvendu Adhikari’s PA Chandranath Rath at Madhyamgram near Kolkata airport late Wednesday were professional killers hired to target him, investigators said Thursday based on evidence suggesting they spent 72 hours scoping the site of the shooting.

The assailants – at least four were spotted – fired eight rounds from Glock 47X semi-automatic pistols. Three bullets each struck Rath, 38, and the person at the wheel of his SUV, Buddhadeb Bera. A third person in the rear seat, Mintu, escaped by ducking. He is being questioned. Bera is critical. The killers, on two motorbikes, used a hatchback to waylay Rath’s car before firing at point-blank range through the front passenger window. The gang discarded the hatchback at a distance.

One of the motorbikes has been found in the vicinity. Investigators have since discovered that the number plates on the car and the motorbike are fake. The chassis numbers had been scrubbed out to make it doubly difficult to trace the owners, officers said.

The hatchback’s registration number matched that of a car owned by William Joseph, a tea garden employee at Haler Math in Shivmandir under the Matigara-Naxalbari constituency of north Bengal. But investigators confirmed that Joseph, who was interrogated at Pradhannagar police station, had no link with the crime.

An SIT led by CID inspector general Anup Jaiswal and including officers of the Intelligence Branch, STF and Barasat police is now conducting the probe. “We have recovered empty cartridges and live ammunition from the scene. The motive for the killing remains unclear,” DGP S N Gupta said after a visit to Madhyamgram.

A 50-second recreation of the crime, based on CCTV footage collected from a factory around 100m from the site, shows the silver hatchback entering Sheikh Mujib Road at 10pm on Wednesday. This road leads to Orchard Estate, where Rath has lived since 2023 with his family. Rath’s vehicle is seen in the footage entering the same stretch eight minutes later, after which the hatchback blocks the way.

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Less than two minutes later, two helmet-wearing riders are seen fleeing on a motorbike towards Jessore Road. Police said one of the assailants perched on a bike placed a hand on the roof of Rath’s vehicle, pressed his pistol hard against the glass window and fired the shots that killed the victim and critically wounded the driver. “Weapons like the Glock 47X are generally not used by ordinary criminals,” an investigator said.

Rath’s postmortem report mentions three gunshot wounds — two to the chest and one to the abdomen — caused excessive blood loss and multiple organ failure.

The young man was dead by the time he was wheeled into a private hospital. Witnesses said the assailants fled in different directions. One motorcycle rode towards the airport and another headed towards either Badu or Rajarhat via bylanes. The hatchback was found near Sahara Bridge.

Rath’s murder was “premeditated”, Adhikari said after his aide’s body was taken from the hospital morgue to his Madhyamgram home, adding he was targeted because of his contribution to his poll victory over Mamata Banerjee in Bhabanipur. “The killers did a recce and followed the victim before shooting him at close range,” said Adhikari, who was with the grieving family all day.

He dismissed TMC’s demand for a court-monitored CBI probe. “Trinamool is irrelevant. Cops are working. I spoke to DGP Gupta. They have leads, and some people have been rounded up. I am confident police will be able to arrest the assailants. The investigation is heading in the right direction,” he said.

Siliguri BJP MLA Shankar Ghosh said he was on the phone with Rath when the shooting occurred. “...The call snapped. I called back and texted, but there was no reply. Someone else answered when I tried again and said Rath had been shot.”