Police have detained at least three people for questioning in connection with the murder of Chandranath Rath, personal assistant to senior BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari, per a Hindustan Times report.
A senior police official reportedly confirmed that questioning was underway. "Investigation is going on. Some persons were being questioned," the officer was quoted as saying by HT.
Rath, who had worked closely with Adhikari for nearly five years, was considered one of his trusted aides and had reportedly played a major role in managing election campaigns in both Nandigram and Bhabanipur.
How the attack unfolded
According to eyewitness accounts, Rath was returning home to Madhyamgram in North 24-Parganas on Wednesday night when motorcycle-borne assailants intercepted his SUV near Doharia.
A local resident described the sequence of events. "Three persons, wearing helmets, were waiting with two motorcycles in a dark lane beside a packaging unit at Doharia.
As Rath's white Scorpio arrived, another vehicle (a Nissan Micra hatchback) approached from the opposite direction and blocked the road. The three then came out of the lane. They started firing at Rath’s vehicle. After that they fled in two motorcycles in two opposite directions abandoning the car," the resident said, per an HT report.
Rath later died from bullet injuries, while his driver Budddadeb Bera sustained multiple gunshot wounds and remains critical. Another BJP worker seated in the rear escaped unhurt.
Fake number plate and CCTV clues
Investigators found that the number plate and chassis number of the hatchback vehicle used in the crime had been tampered with.
Police later traced the registration number to a vehicle owner in Siliguri named William Joseph.
"The vehicle used is not mine. The number used in the license plate is mine. I had put up my car on an online platform for sale a few months ago," Joseph told the media.
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According to investigators, CCTV footage suggests the hatchback may have entered the area nearly six to seven hours before the attack.
'Planned cold-blooded' murder: Adhikari
Adhikari described the killing as carefully planned.
"From whatever the police have got so far, it is a planned cold-blooded. The killers had done recce for the past two to three days and had used false number plates," HT quoted him as saying.
Meanwhile, Rath's mother Hasirani Rath demanded strict punishment for the accused.
"I am a mother too. So, I will not demand the death sentence for the killers. But I want life imprisonment for them," she said.
