KOLKATA: The investigation into the Wednesday night murder of Chandranath Rath, chief minister-designate Suvendu Adhikari’s aide, has expanded to include surveillance of alleged contract killers from other states, including Uttar Pradesh and Odisha.Sources said a team of investigators left for UP after stumbling upon a call from that state to the owner of a Nissan Micra car, who lives in Matigara, near Siliguri. The call came in response to an advertisement the owner had posted on a portal to sell his car, police sources said.The silver-coloured Micra that had blocked Rath’s Scorpio in Madhyamgram, on the northern outskirts of Kolkata, before bike-borne assailants fired at him had the same registration number as the Matigara car.
Cops said footage from multiple CCTV cameras showed that a red hatchback, too, was tailing Rath’s SUV moments before the murder.The sources said at least seven to eight people could be involved in the crime. Till Friday night, at least seven individuals were questioned repeatedly and over a dozen detained.“No usable fingerprints or substantial forensic evidence could be recovered from the assassins’ vehicles, strengthening the suspicion that professional killers had been hired. People with a clear knowledge of the roads and lanes in the area where Rath was shot must have been involved in the planning.” said an officer.Investigators are also gathering information about professional killers who are in custody in Bengal and other states.One of the two bikes used by the assassins was found near Barasat railway station late on Thursday. “The killers might have fled by train from Barasat. Alternatively, they might have kept the bike there to mislead investigators,” a police source said.The other bike was found near airport gate 2.5 on Thursday morning, while the silver Micra was seized from the murder spot on the night of the crime.Killers may have communicated via social media: SleuthsInvestigators said the silver hatchback that blocked Rath’s SUV had been parked for hours near level-crossing gate 11 in Barasat before it was spotted taking a U-turn near airport gate 2.5 towards New Barrackpore around 45 minutes before the murder.The probe team is made of 40 cops, led by a seven-member special investigation team headed by a CID officer of the rank of deputy inspector-general. On Friday, a three-member team from the directorate of forensic science in Gujarat inspected the murder spot, around 170 meters from the housing complex where Rath lived.Sleuths suspect the criminals had created a group on social media to communicate among themselves before the murder. “We believe they exchanged information about Rath’s movements, the car’s location and the final timing of the attack through this group,” a source said.
