Kolkata, May 11 (IANS): Three sharpshooters arrested in Uttar Pradesh in connection with the assassination of Chandranath Rath – personal assistant to West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari – will be presented before a district court in Barasat, North 24 Parganas, on Monday, sources in the state police confirmed. The arrests were made by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the West Bengal Police, which is probing the high-profile murder case. The three accused were quietly brought to Kolkata on Sunday night and taken to the state police headquarters at Bhabani Bhavan in South Kolkata, where investigating officials interrogated them throughout the night. The public prosecutor is expected to seek police custody of the three sharpshooters when they are produced before the court, while the identities of the arrested individuals and the exact location in Uttar Pradesh where they were nabbed are being kept confidential until custody is formally granted.
Rath was shot dead on the night of May 6 – just two days after the West Bengal Assembly election results were declared on May 4, in which BJP candidates won 207 constituencies, reducing the erstwhile ruling Trinamool Congress to just 80 seats. As Rath was returning home to Madhyamgram in North 24 Parganas from a party programme, his vehicle was deliberately blocked by a four-wheeler at a crossing, after which an assailant on one of two motorcycles that had been shadowing his vehicle fired ten rounds of bullets at close range, killing Rath on the spot and critically injuring his driver, Buddhadeb Bera, who is now recovering. Initial investigation revealed that the number plates on both the blocking four-wheeler and the two motorcycles used in the assassination were fake. Chief Minister Adhikari has alleged that Rath was targeted because of his close association with the leader who defeated former Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at Bhabanipur by a margin of over 15,000 votes.