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“All three have been sent to police custody for 13 days,” stated DIG (Cyber) Ajay Thakur, a member of the SIT. They were presented before the Barasat ACJM Court.

The West Bengal CID and Madhyamgram police have detained three accused in relation to the murder of Chandranath Rath, the personal aide of newly elected Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, after a chase across multiple states that took investigators to Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

 Acting on precise intelligence inputs, a specialised unit apprehended Mayank Raj Mishra and Vicky Maurya from Buxar, Bihar, while a third accused, Raj Singh, was arrested in Ballia, Uttar Pradesh. Following questioning by CID officials on May 10, all three were formally taken into custody by the Madhyamgram police. Investigators believe the trio were out-of-state contract killers engaged to execute the murder, though who orchestrated the hit and the motive behind it remain 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 major breakthrough emerged from a sequence of technical mistakes committed by the perpetrators. The silver hatchback allegedly used in the assault carried a forged number plate bearing the same registration as a vehicle registered in Siliguri. According to investigators, the suspects seemed to have copied photographs from an online vehicle sales portal to recreate the registration.

The car passed through West Bengal’s Bally toll plaza shortly before the incident — this was recorded on CCTV — and one of the occupants attempted a UPI transaction that failed. Another suspect then used his personal mobile phone to complete the payment, a lapse that enabled investigators to track banking details and KYC records. This eventually led them to the suspects’ phone numbers and later their whereabouts.

 After their arrest, one of the accused reportedly revealed the role of a third alleged accomplice, Raj Singh, who was subsequently detained. “In cases of this kind, we frequently observe that contract killers are brought in from different states,” a police officer said.

 Senior investigators pointed to notable similarities with the April 1, 2023, killing of Raju Jha, a businessman and BJP leader shot dead by assailants while he and two associates had halted their vehicle at a confectionery outlet in West Bengal’s Purba Bardhaman. In that investigation as well, the state police and an SIT pursued suspected professional hitmen across Bihar and Jharkhand for several months. “While the execution indicates high-profile hired assassins, there is likely a mastermind involved. However, the inquiry is still at an early stage, and it is premature to draw firm conclusions,” an officer said.

Meanwhile, the family of accused Raj Singh stated that he had been preparing to enter local politics and contest panchayat elections. His mother, Jamwanti Singh, asserted that her son is innocent and has been wrongly implicated, and demanded a CBI inquiry. His sister, Deepshika Singh, claimed, “My younger brother is a graduate student and had been preparing over the past few years to contest for the post of block pramukh.”

 The youngest among three siblings, Raj, 25, belongs to Chilkahar block in Ballia district and is currently pursuing his graduation there. His father passed away in 2018, after which his mother, employed at a local post office, became the family’s sole earning member.

 The family’s driver said he had driven Raj, his mother and two others to Lucknow on May 7 for a family gathering. The group later visited a dargah in Ambedkar Nagar and travelled to Ayodhya the following day. “We were eating food when a police team arrived and took all of us to the police station. After some time, they detained Raj and allowed the rest of us to leave,” the driver said.

 Ballia Superintendent of Police Omveer Singh said the district police had not been informed by their West Bengal counterparts regarding the arrest.