Three Sharpshooters Arrested in Connection to Chandranath Rath Murder Case

Three sharpshooters arrested in Uttar Pradesh in connection with the Chandranath Rath assassination case will be presented at a district court in Barasat, North 24 Parganas, on Monday, May 11. The arrests were made by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the West Bengal Police, which is probing the murder. Rath, the personal assistant of West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, was shot dead on May 6 by bike-borne assailants.

The investigating officials have decided to keep the identity of the sharpshooters confidential until they are presented in court and their police custody is granted. The exact location in Uttar Pradesh where the three were arrested has not been disclosed. The arrested individuals were quietly brought to Kolkata on Sunday night and taken to the state police headquarters at Bhabani Bhavan in South Kolkata, where they were interrogated throughout the night.

Rath was murdered on the night of May 6, just two days after the West Bengal Assembly election results were declared on May 4. The BJP won 207 seats, reducing the Trinamool Congress to 80. Rath was returning home to Madhyamgram from a party programme when his vehicle was blocked by a four-wheeler at a crossing. Two motorcycles that had been shadowing his vehicle stopped beside it, and an assailant shot ten rounds from close range. Rath died on the spot, while his driver, Buddhadeb Bera, was critically injured but is now recovering.

Investigations revealed that the number plates on the four-wheeler and the two motorcycles used in the assassination were fake. Adhikari claimed that Rath would not have been killed had he not been the personal assistant of the person who defeated former Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at Bhabanipur by over 15,000 votes.