Three people have been arrested in the murder of Chandranath Rath, personal assistant of West Bengal’s new Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari. In a joint operation by the Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar police, the three men identified as Vishal Srivastava, Raj Singh and Mayank have been arrested from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. The arrests were made possible after the police tracked a UPI payment made by the assailants at a toll booth in Bally near Kolkata.
Chandranath Rath was on his way home when he was shot dead at point-blank range on Wednesday night, between 10 and 10:10. Rath was seated in the front passenger seat of his SUV, a Mahindra Scorpio, and was less than 200 meters away from his home in Madhyamgram, North 24 Parganas.
The initial investigation has revealed that Rath’s SUV was blocked by a silver-coloured Nissan Micra following which bike-borne assailants shot him. The killers then abandoned the Micra and used another car red and a bike to flee.
The police tracked the car at the toll plaza using CCTV footage and spotted the assailants making payment at a toll booth using UPI. This served as a crucial link that led cops to Rath’s killers.