Toll plaza, UPI payment: what helped cops catch killers of Suvendu Adhikari aide
“All three have been remanded to police custody for 13 days,” said DIG (Cyber) Ajay Thakur, a member of the SIT. They were produced before the Barasat ACJM Court.
The move comes after a coordinated raid by police across three states led to the arrest of a Ballia-based sharpshooter and his accomplices. File Photo The West Bengal CID and Madhyamgram police have arrested three suspects in connection with the murder of Chandranath Rath, the personal assistant of newly elected Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, following a pursuit across state lines that led investigators to Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
Acting on specific intelligence, a specialised team detained Mayank Raj Mishra and Vicky Maurya from Buxar, Bihar, while a third suspect, Raj Singh, was apprehended in Ballia, Uttar Pradesh. After interrogation by CID officials on May 10, all three were formally arrested by the Madhyamgram police. Investigators suspect the trio were out-of-state hitmen hired to carry out the killing, though who commissioned the hit and why is still under investigation.
“All three have been remanded to police custody for 13 days,” said DIG (Cyber) Ajay Thakur, a member of the SIT. They were produced before the Barasat ACJM Court.
The breakthrough came from a series of technical blunders by the perpetrators. The silver hatchback used in the attack carried a fake number plate that carried the same registration as a vehicle registered in Siliguri. As per the investigators, the suspects appeared to have lifted photos from an online sales portal to replicate the registration.
The car crossed West Bengal’s Bally toll plaza shortly before the attack — this was captured on CCTV — and one of the occupants attempted a UPI payment that didn’t go through. A second suspect then used his own mobile to complete the transaction, an error that allowed investigators to trace bank details and KYC records. This led them to the suspects’ phone numbers and eventually their locations.
Following their arrest, one of the accused disclosed the involvement of a third alleged accomplice, Raj Singh, who was apprehended. “In cases of this nature, we often find that contract killers are hired from different states,” a police officer said.
Senior investigators noted striking similarities with the April 1, 2023, murder of Raju Jha, a businessman and BJP leader shot dead by assailants while he and two associates had parked their vehicle at a confectionery shop in West Bengal’s Purba Bardhaman. In that case, too, the state police and an SIT tracked suspected professional hitmen across Bihar and Jharkhand over several months. “While the execution suggests high-profile hired killers, there is likely a mastermind. However, the probe is in its infancy, and it is too early to draw definitive conclusions,” an officer said.
Meanwhile, the family of accused Raj Singh said he had been preparing to enter local politics and contest panchayat elections. His mother, Jamwanti Singh, maintained that her son is innocent and has been falsely implicated, and demanded a CBI probe. His sister, Deepshika Singh, claimed, “My younger brother is a graduate student and was preparing for the past few years to contest for the post of block pramukh.”
The youngest of three siblings, Raj, 25, hails from Chilkahar block in Ballia district and is currently pursuing his graduation there. His father died in 2018, after which his mother, who works at a local post office, became the family’s sole provider.
The family’s driver said he had taken Raj, his mother and two others to Lucknow on May 7 for a family function. The group subsequently visited a dargah in Ambedkar Nagar and travelled to Ayodhya the following day. “We were having food when a police team arrived and took all of us to the police station. After some time, they detained Raj and let the rest of us go,” the driver said.
Ballia Superintendent of Police Omveer Singh said the district police had not been informed by their West Bengal counterparts about the arrest.
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